Intuit QuickBooks has just released their Accountant Tech US Trends Survey for 2024. The survey offers a look into the ways accountants are using technology, particularly AI, to balance business performance and industry challenges in today’s macroeconomic environment.
In fact, more than a quarter of accountant professionals agree that failure to keep pace with technological advancements poses a greater risk to the industry than rising interest rates, inflationary pressure and hiring challenges.
Four key takeaways of the survey:
1) 98% of accountants surveyed have used AI to help clients over the past 12 months.
- 95% say tech skills are just as important as traditional accounting skills — to support their own business growth as well as their clients'.
- 94% agree outsourcing is another way to maintain business growth by improving efficiency and the focus on advisory services.
2) Amid widespread hiring challenges, more than 9 out of 10 agree technology could help them solve skills shortages.
- First, by attracting and retaining great workers.
- Second, by removing the drudgery from day-to-day work.
3) The Number-One threat to the profession, according to accountants, is falling behind the tech curve — a greater threat, even, than inflation and interest rates.
4) Almost all (99%) have felt the headwinds of inflation and interest rates, but more than 9 out of 10 agree technology can help them — and their clients — to weather these challenges.
Additional findings of interest:
- More than 9 in 10 (98%) agree that alternative pathways to CPA licensure can prepare upcoming accountants just as much as, or more than, the traditional pathway.
- One in 5 (21%) respondents flag a challenging economic environment that doesn't improve as one of the biggest threats to the future of the accounting industry.
- While all respondents expressed some concerns about the advancement of AI in the accounting industry, job replacement (9%) was low on the list.
For more details regarding the survey results, see Intuit's Firm of the Future blog here.
Content under embargo until 8:30 a.m. ET on June 25, 2024.
Survey Disclosure:
The 2024 survey sample excludes accountants/bookkeepers who work in-house at non-accounting firms — whereas the 2023 survey sample included these respondents. Response comparisons year-over-year have been estimated comparing 2024’s sample to the 2023 respondents who did not work in-house at non-accounting firms.
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