What AI agents mean for CPA firms
Accordance was founded by AI researchers-turned students-of-practitioners who dedicated their first years to working alongside tax leaders, professors, and firm partners. From Stanford AI Lab to CEO, David Yue continues with that same philosophy: learning from the practitioners and firms that shape Accordance.
Q Everyone’s talking about AI agents. What does that really mean for my firm?
A Most AI tools today are sophisticated question-answerers. You ask, they respond, you take it from there. An agent is different. It actually does the work: running a tax return, working through an audit, reconciling accounts, drafting the memo. Agents pull from the right sources, flag where direction is needed, and verify where unsure. They are less like a search engine and more like a coworker that knows when to act and when to ask.
Knowing when to ask is the critical piece. The value isn’t full automation, but the right collaboration. Rather than an agent that runs to completion and leaves you wondering if you can trust its response, an agent that knows its defensible boundaries and passes the baton to you at the right moment provides true value.
For firms, that changes what a team can take on. The seniors’ judgment stops being the bottleneck. It becomes the multiplier.
Q AI is everywhere. What should CPAs and finance leaders focus on beneath the hype?
A The smartest people in this profession have spent decades developing judgment that lives entirely in their heads. That discernment has always been hard to transfer. For the first time, there’s a real path to making this expertise accessible to everyone across the firm, not just the clients lucky enough to get the right partner at the right time.
The firms getting this right ask a simple question: “Where is our best thinking bottlenecked?” Find those places. That’s where the technology actually matters and where the newest generation of AI agents (the ones that can do work rather than just answer questions) are starting to make a real difference.
Q What happens to the leverage model?
A The leverage model doesn’t break. It expands. A junior working alongside an agent produces higher-quality work. A senior stops being the bottleneck and becomes the multiplier: their discernment reaches more clients, more engagements, and more of the truly impactful work.
Practitioners with more bandwidth to focus on that truly impactful work strengthen their firms. They handle complex advisory scenarios more easily, anticipate client needs earlier, and deliver sharper guidance that provides lasting value. The economics follow.
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