How much is the ‘AI premium?’

AI has been affecting nearly every part of the accounting profession, including what leaders look for in new hires as well as how leaders themselves operate in their own organizations. 

Accounting firms, like many businesses, have been particularly interested in those with AI skills and experience, and — according to research — they’re willing to pay more for it. How much more, though, varied greatly between our experts. Some thought it could be as low as 10%, others said it could be higher than 50%, and others gave wide ranges in-between. Eva Mrazikova, senior director of product marketing with practice management solutions provider IRIS, felt this tied into the shift away from billable hours and towards value-based pricing. 

“It’s early days, but the logic is straightforward: if firms are shifting to value-based pricing because AI dramatically increases efficiency, compensation should follow the same principle.

An AI-fluent accountant who can deliver the same output in a fraction of the time fundamentally changes the revenue-per-employee equation. In a world where billing is tied to value delivered rather than hours worked, that could justify a 20-30% compensation premium simply because the employee is generating significantly more revenue per hour,” she said. 

But many others said the premium isn’t so much in actual paychecks but career advancement and opportunities, or that they could not make such a determination before seeing what someone specifically does with AI. Avani Desai, CEO of IT-specialist accounting firm Schellman, said it’s not so much that AI experts should be paid more out the gate but that those with AI skills will be more productive, which lets them advance faster and get paid more. 

“If two staff accountants truly have identical skills and experience, their pay should be the same. Where AI makes a difference is in how someone works. An employee who uses AI effectively to improve quality, efficiency, and insight will often take on more complex work sooner and progress faster over time. That shows up in career trajectory and opportunity rather than an immediate, explicit pay differential,” she said. 

Though our experts may have disagreed as to the specifics, overall there was a strong consensus that accountants with AI experience are preferable over those with none as the entire profession undergoes a major transformation. From the automation of simple compliance tasks to the aggregation of data for high level advisory insights, AI is increasingly part of the standard accounting toolkit, used in even the most simple of machine learning applications. In fact, Hitendra Patil, CEO of accounting and fintech consultancy Accountaneur, said there might not be so much an AI premium to seek but a lack-of-AI-penalty to avoid. 

“I do not believe there will be extra pay just for knowing how to use AI tools. That’s now expected. The real advantage of expertise in leveraging AI is moving ahead faster in the career, seeing things more clearly, and having more influence at work and with clients. Fewer mistakes, quicker insights, and hence, better decisions, will add up over time. By 2026, everyone will be expected to know AI. Not having those skills will quietly limit your career,” he said. 

These experts themselves, for the most part, are enthusiastic users of AI. They report using it for a wide variety of applications, from document summarization to research to communications and documentation. None are necessarily working less because of it, but rather the nature of their work has changed. With all the extra time they’ve saved, they generally are putting the free minutes into strengthening relationships with both clients and staff. They’re also spending more time on high level advisory work and business development. 

“AI has taken over many of the micro-tasks that used to fill my day, including summarizing large sets of information, drafting early versions of documents, extracting themes from long reports, and reviewing extensive background materials. What I’ve gained back is time to think. Instead of being buried in materials and prep work, I’m spending more time on strategy, talent development, and long-horizon conversations about where the profession is going and how Aprio continues to lead it,” said Brent McDaniel, chief digital officer for Top 25 firm Aprio. 

But not everyone. Donny Shimamoto, founder and managing director for tech-focused consulting firm IntrapriseTechknowlogies, felt the nature of his work means it’s better to maintain a human touch with clients. 

“I do true thought leadership and innovation. I create things and approach concepts in ways that have not been done before so AI can’t do that since it requires past examples to create from. Another large part of my work is advising clients, my team does most of the prep work and they have leveraged AI. However, my role is to help personalize the options for the client and to help talk the client through the options to ensure they make an informed decision that is in their best interest. These are not things that will be replaced by AI,” he said. 

You can see more below in this, our second entry exploring the answers in this year’s AI Thought Leaders survey. Below are our experts’ answers to the following two questions: 

What is the actual AI premium in terms of compensation? Imagine two identical staff accountants, one who regularly uses AI and the other who has never used AI. Otherwise, their skills and qualifications are exactly the same. How much more is the former paid over the latter?

What parts of your own job, which you used to do yourself, have now been largely automated via AI, and what has come to fill the time you’ve saved?

You can read Part 1 here.

(note, some respondents declined to answer both questions)