SURVEYS & RESEARCH

Ellison-Taylor: Small Firms’ Fix for Talent Crisis | Gear Up For Growth

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They’re not leaving the firm. They’re leaving you.

Originally published Jan. 10, 2025.
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

What’s driving talent out of accounting firms? According to Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, CPA, CGMA, CITP, CISA, everything from outdated leadership to untold success stories is pushing promising professionals away. In this episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines, host Jean Caragher sits down with the powerhouse behind KET Solutions to explore how the profession can—and must—change to attract and retain the next generation.

Gear Up for Growth spotlights the best strategies for smart and efficient growth in today’s competitive landscape. More Gear Up for Growth | More Capstone Conversations with Jean Caragher | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here

Ellison-Taylor, former chair of both the AICPA and the Maryland Association of CPAs, started her journey into accounting as a third grader inspired by a career-day presentation. That spark led to decades of leadership—and now, a mission to transform the narrative around what it means to be a CPA.

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What Empowerment Does for Your Firm

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two men talking across a table, one holding a sheet of paper, window and brick wall in background

Ten ways to get started.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Empowerment seems like it would be the easiest attribute to build up in a firm, but it’s actually one of the hardest. Firms go to these Kumbaya events on leadership and trusting your team, but then when they go back to the office the next day, nothing has changed.

MORE by Alan Anderson
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Empowerment is last in my book because it’s the furthest from what clients value most. Clients look at What’s In It For Me – they value what’s relevant to them. But empowerment is the most important attribute in our framework. It’s the key to unlocking the power of your team.
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Is AI Contributing to Burnout?

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About 71% are feeling overwhelmed by A.I. (via Brainstorm Group, HB Publishing & Marketing Co.)

How you can cope and thrive

By Randy Crabtree

A new Cal Berkeley study of a 200-employee U.S. technology company found that AI didn’t free up workers’ time as promised. Instead, it expanded what workers felt capable of and willing to take on.

MORE Bridging the Gap, July 28-30, Charlotte, N.C.

I suspect we’re seeing the same thing in the accounting profession and other areas of professional services.

My firm’s annual CPA Career Satisfaction survey found that accountants overwhelmingly agreed that AI would benefit their firms long-term. However, most also felt AI would contribute to personal stress and burnout in the short run.

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Accountants Race to Tame AI before AI Outruns the Practice

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Only 1 in 5 firms has an AI strategy, leaving most firms with varying degrees of chaos.

Barely three years since ChatGPT launched, 98% of accountants are using AI regularly. 88% use it in client service.

By CPA Trendlines Research

With artificial intelligence now firmly embedded in the daily life of tax and accounting firms, the profession’s next test is whether practitioners can learn to run AI before AI outruns the practice.

A new crop of research studies and benchmarking surveys suggests firms have yet to fully govern the tools, price the work, train the staff and protect client trust under AI regimes. Reports from the AICPA, Karbon, CPA.com, Blue J, Intuit Firm of the Future, KPMG, Personiv, the ACCA, Rightworks, Business.com and Citrin Cooperman show AI adoption is no longer in doubt. Coping with it is.

MORE Artificial intelligence | Supkis Cheek: Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | |Private Equity’s Big Bet Faces an AI Shake-Up | Doug Slaybaugh: How to Define “Values in Motion” | At ENGAGE 2026, a Profession Richer and Less Certain Than Ever. | Jen Cryder: From Membership Model to Market Maker | Big 4 Transparency | Three Tech Priorities with Rapid ROI | The Google Playbook for Young Accountants | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds |

Karbon says 98% of accounting professionals use AI, up 15 percentage points from last year, with 55% using it several times a day and 74% using it daily or more often.

Intuit says 88% of accounting professionals used AI for at least one client service in the last 12 months, and 86% used AI for at least one firm operation. Some 46% of firms are investing in AI training, 21% have an AI policy, and 21% have an AI strategy. Intuit says 30% describe AI as embedded by default in daily work, while 54% use it only when it seems useful.

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