AI is quickly becoming one of the most talked-about technologies in the accounting profession — and for good reason. As pressure mounts on CPA firms to increase efficiency, manage talent constraints and deliver more value to clients, AI offers a powerful way to reimagine how work gets done.
But while the headlines and vendor promises are bold, the path to adoption can feel unclear, especially for mid-market CPA firms. Questions like “Where do we begin?” and “How do we use AI responsibly?” are valid — and common.
The good news: you don’t need an AI lab to start. With a focused, business-first approach, CPA firms can begin to realize tangible benefits from AI today.
In this post, I walk through how firms like yours are taking the first steps, what use cases are delivering value, and how to create a safe and structured environment for experimenting with AI in your day-to-day operations.
What CPA Leaders Are Saying About AI
In our recent survey and conversations with firm leaders, three key themes came through:
- Growing curiosity about AI, but also confusion
- A sense that AI is inevitable, but unclear where to start
- Concerns about staff readiness and responsible usage
The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your tech stack to start realizing value from AI.
AI Is Already Making a Difference in CPA Firms
Let’s be clear: AI isn’t replacing your staff. But it is already reshaping how work gets done.
Tools like Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are enabling:
- Drafting of client emails, summaries and engagement letters
- Summarizing meeting notes and GL data
- Automating follow-ups and proposal generation
At Netgain, we’re using these tools ourselves — to speed up document creation, accelerate research summarize meetings and key actions, and even coach junior team members.
CPA firms are doing the same. In fact, some are saving 8–12 hours per week by using AI to draft routine client communications, summarize transcripts and prep deliverables.
Common AI Use Cases for CPA Firms
Here are real examples that don’t require a massive IT investment:
- Email Assistance: Copilot in Outlook can draft client responses, summarize long threads and schedule follow-ups.
- Engagement Drafting: Use ChatGPT to draft an engagement letter, tax memo or audit planning doc, then refine and personalize.
- Audit Support: Upload GL data to ChatGPT Team and prompt it to identify outliers or unusual transactions.
- Client Summaries: After a client call, AI can summarize the transcript and identify next steps in clear, structured bullets.
- Automating Intake and Delivery: Targeted applications like Soraban automate data collection and delivery and integrate with applications you’re already using.
These are small, tactical wins — but they add up quickly.
How to Get Started with AI in Your Firm
You don’t need a Chief AI Officer to get going. You just need structure and momentum. Here’s a practical roadmap:
- Start with Experimentation
- Encourage partners and staff to play with ChatGPT Team or Microsoft Copilot (both paid versions with data privacy safeguards that prevent your data from being used to train their models)
- Target real (non-sensitive) work scenarios
- Set Clear Guardrails
- Define what’s safe to share and what’s off-limits
- Create an AI usage policy (green = go, yellow = caution, red = do not use)
- Leverage best practices and templates from CPA.com’s Generative AI Toolkit
- Identify Internal Champions
- Look for staff who are already playing with AI tools
- Empower them to help others and test use cases
- Pilot a Use Case
- Choose 1–2 high-frequency, low-risk tasks (e.g., email summaries, document drafting, extraction and organization of unstructured data)
- Measure the time saved and output quality
- Iterate and Expand
- Once you see results, roll out to more teams
- Build a prompt library for the firm to use and share
| Theme | Use Cases | Examples of AI Tools |
| Personal Productivity | – Recording and transcribing meetings – Summarizing key points from various documents (e.g., auditors) | – Copilot – Fireflies.ai – Otter – Microsoft Office Scripts |
| Content Creation & Editing | – Drafting responses to letters – Creating engagement letters – Extracting insights from unstructured data | – ChatGPT – Claude – Jasper AI |
| Research, Analysis, and Decision Making | – PhD-level research in areas like tax – Staying current with new regulations – Understanding client jargon/industry | – ChatGPT Deep Research – Blue J |
| Assistance & Workflow Automation | – Training and how-to guides using AI – Validation checks on data across systems – Workflow bots | – ChatGPT Operator – Klarity – Guidde – Soraban |
Final Thoughts
AI is not just for the Big Four or tech-savvy firms. It’s accessible, practical and already delivering ROI for mid-market CPA firms.
The key is to start small. Set a foundation of experimentation, structure and education. Track the wins. And most importantly, view AI as a tool to enhance your team — not replace them.
Your clients will appreciate the speed. Your staff will appreciate the support. And your firm will be better positioned for the future.
If you’re interested in exploring how to get started with AI, reviewing your firm’s AI readiness or drafting an AI use policy — we’d love to help. Reach out to us to schedule an AI assessment.
Let’s move AI from buzzword to business value.
Sumeet Sabharwal is the CEO of Netgain, where he leads the charge in aligning people, purpose and technology to support CPA, legal and healthcare organizations. With decades of experience in scaling and evolving IT services, he brings a practical, client-centered approach to leadership. Read more about Sumeet.