Lochhead, Yoon: What Accountants Do when AI Makes Accounting Free | The Distruptors
The old answers to old problems don’t work anymore.
The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines
AI
Accountants Race to Tame AI before AI Outruns the Practice
Only 1 in 5 firms has an AI strategy, leaving most firms with varying degrees of chaos.
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.
Freeman, Dixon: What to Do When AI Steals Your Clients | Gear Up for Growth
Every client relationship is now up for renewal—and every partner has to learn how to compete.
Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil | See Today’s Special Offer
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Gear Up for Growth
with Jean Caragher
for CPA Trendlines
“The relationship gets you in the door, but it doesn’t get you the work,” says Karen Freeman, chief product officer, DCM Insights, and co-author of Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently, in this episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines and hosted by Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing. “Once it’s competitive, it’s a lot harder to differentiate based on your past relationship.”
MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here |
Gear Up for Growth is tailored specifically for public accounting firms with up to 100 team members looking to expand their practices intelligently and efficiently.
MORE Gear Up for Growth here | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network here
Freeman and co-author Matt Dixon, founding partner of DCM Insights, reflect on what they have learned one year after the release of their bestselling book. They discuss how AI, changing buyer behavior and increasing competition are reshaping growth strategies for accounting and advisory firms. Firms that rely on traditional relationship-based growth models risk falling behind.
Supkis Cheek: Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | ARC
The profession is changing in ways that go far beyond automation.
Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil |
See Today’s Special Offer
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Originally published May 7, 2026
Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation
In a profession often defined by structure, standards, and well-worn career paths, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, opens a different kind of conversation in a recent Accounting ARC episode—one that challenges assumptions about what it means to build a career in accounting.
His guest, Danielle Supkis Cheek, embodies that challenge.
As senior vice president of AI, analytics and assurance at CaseWare, Supkis Cheek operates at the intersection of technology, methodology, and human judgment. But her path there was anything but linear—and that, Shimamoto suggests, is exactly the point.
MORE Accounting ARC: AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich Generation | Built Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet | Accounting’s “Untalked-About” Frontier | Why Happiness is Hard-Fought for High Achievers | The Fastest Way to Lose Talent Is “Dick Leadership” | Post-Holiday Fatigue Isn’t a Failure; It’s a Signal | OCR, Research Bots & Meeting Assistants: What Actually Helps Now | Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting |
Supkis Cheek describes her role less as a technologist and more as a translator. “I like to think of myself as someone who translates across domains,” she says, explaining how she helps software companies understand how accountants actually work—and how technology can reshape those workflows.
Private Equity’s Big Bet Faces an AI Shake-Up
But scale may matter more, not less, in the accounting and legal markets.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The same technology that promises higher margins could weaken the billable-hour economics that made professional services so attractive.
MORE Private Equity | What $1 Billion Buys in Today’s CPA Market
Private equity’s rush into law and accounting is running into a new question: What happens to a roll-up strategy built on professional labor when artificial intelligence starts doing more of the work?