Cornerstone

Gen AI in Accounting: Epic Transformation, or Overheated Hype?

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Cornerstone Report: Artificial Intelligence 2025

Accountants embrace AI. via Moss Adams

By CPA Trendlines Research

MORE CPA Trendlines: Cornerstone Research Reports
SEE THE LATEST on Artificial Intelligence
MORE CPA Trendlines AI: AI Will Steal Your Job and That’s a Good Thing | AI Displacing More Jobs in Banking Than Other Sectors | A.I. Automation Tools for Tax, Accounting, and Finance Professionals |  AI’s Role in Modern Accounting | AI Named the Highest-Paying In-Demand Tech Skill for 2024 | ChatGPT Is Getting Humanlike Memory | How to Use ChatGPT to Create Images | How to Leverage ChatGPT During This Crazy Tax Season |

Insights and Implications

I. At a Glance

  • Impact: Gauging the influence of Generative AI on the accounting industry.
  • Consequences: The new shape of accounting practices.
  • Strategies: For accounting firms, regulatory bodies, and educational institutions.

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Salary and Compensation Outlook for Small CPA Firms 2025

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Cornerstone Report

The CPA Trendlines overview of what accountants can expect regarding annual salary and bonuses at small CPA firms – and what small CPA firms can expect to budget.

By CPA Trendlines Research

A combination of a talent shortage and the general economic environment could push payroll budgets up by as much as 16.9% in 2025 at small CPA firms, according to CPA Trendlines Research. But partners and owners could make even more.

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Battling the Staffing Crisis: Is a Little-Known, But Controversial, Visa Program the Answer for 2025 Hiring?

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Cornerstone Report: H-1B Hiring and Salary Trends in Tax, Accounting and Finance

  • The Jobs Outlook, Salary Trends, and Election Year Politics.

    • Plus: Comprehensive Guides for Accountants and CPA Firms

CPA Trendlines Research estimates and illustration

What it is. How it works. And what CPA firms are doing.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The H-1B visa program is vital for U.S. companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations, including tax, finance, and accounting.

CPA Trendlines Research estimates that as many as 46,000 tax, accounting and finance professionals work at U.S. firms under the H-1B program. This figure has received scant attention in the profession but is critical to its infrastructure. To the extent that it has received attention, critics say the program holds down salaries for U.S. workers.

In 2024, the Biden administration eased restrictions on the H-1B visa program while clamping down on abuses. By 2025, with the Trump Administration, it had become a lightning rod of controversy.

The nation’s tech industry has a huge stake in the outcome. Despite fluctuations in the number of H-1B workers requested and approved, the demand for H-1B workers in computer-related occupations remains strong, and H-1B workers play a critical role in the workforce.

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Twelve Years and Out: Seasoned Accountants Join the Exodus.

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No longer a problem confined to just new talent or middle managers.

Where they go: The biggest slice, 19 percent, goes into finance, followed by business and operations. (via Live Data)

By CPA Trendlines Research

In a startling shift, thousands of highly experienced top-level accountants are leaving the field mid-career, challenging the long-held view that the staffing crisis is limited to new graduates or middle managers.

RELATED: Middle Managers Getting Squeezed | Explaining the Talent Shortage in One Big Chart | Salary and Compensation Outlook for Small CPA Firms | Gen AI in Accounting: Epic Transformation, or Overheated Hype? | MORE: The Talent Crisis | DOWNLOAD The National Pipeline Advisory Group Report

For many accountants on the edge of transition, the coming years will determine whether the profession can reinvent itself to retain the trust of its workforce or continue to lose ground as one of America’s fundamental professions.

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Student Accounting Enrollment Shows Third Year of Recovery | Cornerstone

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But

New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows a 12 percent increase in fall 2024 accounting enrollment compared to fall 2023. The increase amounted to an additional 28,672 students.

Total undergraduate accounting enrollment for fall 2024 was 267,278 students, the highest accounting enrollment reported since fall 2020 (263,092 students) and just shy of the pre-pandemic fall 2019 enrollment (275,963 students).

Understanding the Inflection Points
in Number of CPA Exam Candidates

CPA Trendlines Cornerstone Report

The key factors contributing to the ups and downs – mostly downs in the last three decades – of CPA exam candidates reflect broader trends in the economy, regulatory environment, and demographic landscape.

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A Brief History of the US Income Tax, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Tax, Accounting and CPA Profession | Cornerstone

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Cornerstone Report

By CPA Trendlines Research

The Internal Revenue Service has a long and complex history dating back to the early days of the United States. The story of the IRS intersects at critical points with the development of the tax, accounting and CPA profession.

MORE Cornerstone Reports here

The current federal income tax can be traced back to the Revenue Act 1913, passed after the states ratified the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. The act provided that taxes on individual taxpayers would be imposed beginning in 1913 on incomes of $3,000 and up.

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