Can AI Replace Accountants?
What the Future of Accounting Holds
By: Ally Whatley
Feb. 4, 2026
Rise of AI
As we all know, generative AI is successfully becoming a major part of all our lives, whether it be for school-based research or daily life questions. One continuous question that keeps coming up in young professionals' lives is: Will AI take over my career? The short answer is no. However, the work and mix of roles are changing. When referring to routine, clerical tasks, automation is trimming those roles down, but the demand for logical, judgement-heavy and tech-enabled accountants and auditors is increasing.
What Actually is Being Automated
Every couple of decades, there has been talk that accounting will become a scarcer career path and that it will become more automated. The reason the stigma of accounting becoming automated stems back decades is because in the early-to-mid 1900s accounting was basic recording of revenue and expenses to configure businesses net income. That being automated seems reasonable, but in the late 1970’s to early 2000’s, accounting started to become a more in-depth way businesses tracked cash flows and acquisitions, and now in the quarter 21st century, accounting is a widely complex field with many directions.
In accounting, the first jobs to feel automation are the highly redundant ones, including data entry, expense coding, three-way matches, etc. Accountants with these roles will shift toward more advisory and analytical work.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects “a -6% employment change (2024-2034) for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks”. This statistic is for the more routine, basic accounting roles, but the more sophisticated roles that plan, interpret, and exercise professional judgment, cannot be taken over by AI. With these upper-level roles, they often use AI as an accelerator for their work. Extracting data from messy PDFs, assisting with policy lookups, drafting memos, and helping determine where documents go are all useful tools accountants utilize AI for. Most accountant roles spend time on analysis and ensuring company’s financial records are up to accounting standards, which AI cannot do.
“In professional services, like auditing, critical thinking and professional skepticism are non-negotiable. Technology can enhance our work, but it cannot substitute for our judgment.”
Will AI Reduce Accounting Jobs?
Mentioned previously, AI cannot replace higher, more critical thinking accounting jobs because AI doesn’t replace two things: independence and judgment. Regulators, such as the PCAOB, are persistent on using technology, but you, the accountant, are still responsible for the evidence you use, the procedures you use, and the opinion you give. Evidence suggests that relocation more than replacement will exist with the rise of AI. Meaning that employment stays mainly stable in the field, just where the accountant’s roles might change. Many accountants use AI to check their own work for errors ensuring their information is accurate. If anything, there is a talent shortage in the accounting profession - especially with CPAs. The shortage of accountants, and CPAs, is what is driving some firms to lean into automation in order for the higher-level work to be more of a focus.
How the Biggest Firms are Adapting
While the future of AI is not completely known, a few things the top firms are adapting to AI rather than letting the changes come out of the blue. PwC announced a $1 billion multiyear investment in generative AI to better improve audit efficiency and quality. Another big four firm, KMPG, in an impressive agreement with Microsoft, is utilizing Azure OpenAI across audit, tax, and advisory for over 250,000 employees. This AI includes automated prep work, superb data analytics, and redeploys human time to consultations, client service, and judgments. These changes are promising for the future of the field because not only are they helping speed and enhance services with current employees, but it also proves that accounting jobs are not going away because of AI.
AI Changes the Work—Not the Need for Accountants
The bottom line is that AI is not replacing accountants, it is reshaping how the work is done with automating routine steps and helping enhance judgment, controls, and communication. Clerical roles will continue to decline as not only AI improves, but software improves as well and can handle more entry-level tasks. But the demand for professionals who can evaluate evidence, explain results, and are educated will remain strong. If you are thinking about pursuing a degree in accounting, do it. The field is not going anywhere.
