Artificial intelligence has already disrupted the accounting profession, and it will likely keep doing so in 2026 — it may even accelerate. In just a few short years, many routine tasks that once practically defined the profession have been automated, and many more are expected to join them soon. What’s more, with the sharp rise of semi-autonomous agents and model context protocols this past year, the complexity of tasks that can be done with AI is expected to increase as well.
More specifically, many experts believe that we will see AI taking over many of the non-accounting tasks that need to be done before the actual accounting takes place such as data entry, processing and verification. While the particulars vary from one practice area to another, overall experts believe accountants will be spending less time setting things up and more time actually doing the work they’re meant to do. They will spend less time sourcing documents, extracting the right data from them, and categorizing the information correctly for downstream workflows. They also will spend less time cleaning unstructured data so that their software can read it.
“The area that will see the most dramatic reduction in human involvement is pre-processing — everything associated with getting information into systems in the first place. That includes sourcing documents like bills, extracting data from those documents, and categorizing information correctly so it’s ready for downstream workflows,” said Ariege Misherghi, general manager of the accounting channel for payment solutions provider Bill.
Beyond the data itself, experts also believe that AI this year will increasingly handle other preparatory work such as preparing disclosure checklists, mapping access and configurations, requesting documents, or even setting up meetings.
“If you rewind just a few years, a huge amount of time inside accounting firms was spent simply getting information ready — chasing documents, organizing files, and prepping work before the ‘real’ work could even begin. That’s the part that’s changing the fastest. In 2026, far fewer people will spend their days pulling information together or cleaning things up before work can start. AI is increasingly taking on that first pass: organizing client information, flagging what’s missing, and setting teams up with a clean starting point,” said Mary Delaney, CEO of practice management solutions provider Karbon.
Another point raised by Sergio de la Fe, digital enterprise leader for Top 10 Firm RSM, was that AI has already changed how professionals do technical research, and he felt that, with such tools going increasingly mainstream, this will accelerate in 2026.
“Technical research already looks very different, and these changes will be mainstream in 2026. AI already enables significant enhancements in research by increasing the speed and depth that can be achieved. At RSM we have deployed AI research tools for our team members to allow them to focus their time in reading, validating and using their professional judgment and critical thinking to provide the highest quality advice and service to our clients,” he said.
Many also said AI will be taking on more of the tax workflow this year, with some — such as Jim Bourke, managing director of advisory services at Top 100 Firm Withum — predicting that simple tax engagements will be a largely automated affair.
“You need to be living under a rock not to realize the days of basic individual income tax return preparation are very rapidly changing. In fact, over the past few weeks I have even seen a tremendous uptick on Instagram ads pressing for the sale of small tax practices to technology-focused companies who plan to automate this process entirely,” he said.
What’s more, Randy Johnston, executive vice president at accounting tech consultancy K2, noted that even more complex returns are starting to see AI solutions. He pointed out, for example, that Thomson Reuters had recently acquired Additive AI for K1 processing, and there are other solution providers also innovating in this field.
Bookkeeping and corporate finance solutions will likely also increase in sophistication, according to experts, which means that many of the more routine CAS-related services will also see less human involvement in 2026. Bank reconciliations, AP and AR, trial balance mapping and other tasks that are already seeing heavy automation might be completely automated by this time next year.
And the dreaded month-end close will become a little less dreaded, according to Jeff Seibert, founder and CEO of bookkeeping solutions provider Digits.
“By the end of 2026, the month-end close — particularly transaction coding, bank statement reconciliation, schedule updates, and variance analysis — will see dramatically less human involvement. Once predictive models, document extraction models, and agents work together inside the ledger, these steps simply begin happening in the background, 24/7. Humans will still supervise and review, but the procedural ‘doing’ fades away,” he said.
But don’t count humanity out just yet. While AI has claimed many simple tasks, experts also agreed that there will still be plenty for human accountants to do in 2026. Namely, any task that requires judgment, deals with ambiguity, and involves social interaction remains firmly within the organic domain.
Humans will still be leading the full-scope risk assessment for an audit, and they will continue to be the ones who determine audit materiality. Humans will still be in charge of revenue recognition structuring and other judgment-heavy accounting tasks. And they will still be holding actual client conversations and helping them make reasonable and ethical decisions. Experts were very firm in these predictions. This is because, as mentioned by nearly everyone, while AI can certainly do many things better than humans — pattern recognition, repetitive tasks, data analysis — it still lacks professional skepticism, professional experience, and genuine human understanding. These are the things a client values in their relationship with their CPA, and they will likely continue to value these things in 2026.
“While AI now unlocks access to enterprise-grade analytics — and features like Xero Analytics can already model cash flow and ‘what-if’ scenarios — it can’t contextualize them the way a human advisor can. AI is becoming incredibly proficient at the ‘what’ like processing data and spotting patterns, but it can’t compete with a human on the ‘So what?’ Numbers are just numbers until an advisor interprets them through the lens of a trusted relationship. You need deep context to understand a client’s specific fears, risk tolerance, and long-term dreams. That trust-based partnership isn’t going anywhere; clients don’t just want a dashboard, they want a partner who can tell them what that data actually means for their future,” said Lisa Hwang, senior vice president of product, AI and insights at small-business accounting platform Xero.
There is much more below in this, our first entry in this year’s AI Thought Leader series. You will see our experts’ answers to these questions:
- What’s an accounting task or process that will see substantially less human involvement in 2026 than 2025 because of AI?
- Conversely, what is an accounting task or process you are confident will still mainly be done by humans in 2026?
Credit: Source link
