By Steve Brifu Sarkodie
The 2025 webinar “AI and Accountants,” in partnership with Chartered Accountants Ireland, highlighted how Artificial Intelligence is no longer a future concept for the accounting profession but instead, a present-day reality. CAW Network USA’s “AI & Accountants 2025 Part 1” webinar examined Accountants and the future of the Profession, what is changing, and the opportunities that these changes bring to the field in this emerging AI environment.
John Munnelly, ACMA, CGMA, and AICPA, a long-time thought leadership executive, spoke about the broad arc of technology in accounting and where today’s wave of AI truly fits. He traced the profession’s evolution from spreadsheets to MRP systems and then to fully integrated ERP platforms, framing AI not as a sudden disruption, but as the next stage in a transition accountants have been navigating for decades.
What stood out to me was his emphasis on how accountants will adapt. Rather than competing with AI, Munnelly argues that the profession’s value will increasingly come from higher-order cognitive skills areas where technology still falls short. That perspective strongly aligns with what we’re already seeing across the industry: automation is changing the tasks accountants perform, but it’s elevating the importance of human judgment, not replacing it.
AI can produce output quickly, but it doesn’t think critically on its own. Accountants still need to challenge assumptions, question results, validate models, and spot risks or inconsistencies that an algorithm may overlook. More importantly, we must continue to focus on economic substance over technical or algorithmic form, something no system can reliably interpret without human context.
Ian Browne, ACMA, CGMA, Director of Education at Chartered Accountants Ireland, shared a practical and refreshingly grounded perspective on AI and its role in shaping the future of the accounting profession. Framed as “AI – Our Perspective in Education,” His session focused less on speculation and more on how educators can responsibly prepare the next generation of accountants for a profession that is already changing.
What made Browne’s perspective resonate was his positioning of the conversation: right at the intersection of professional education and rapidly advancing AI capabilities. He wasn’t presenting AI as a distant threat or a shiny new gadget. Instead, he treated it as a structural shift that affects how accountants learn, think, and ultimately deliver value.
A key takeaway from the session was the idea of teaching with AI, not just teaching about AI. Browne emphasized that students should be encouraged to use AI tools as part of their learning, rather than shielded from them. In practice, that means integrating AI into activities students already recognize as core to the profession’s research, financial modeling, scenario analysis, and even report or memo drafting, with appropriate human review and judgment applied.
The broader goal, as Browne explained, is normalization. AI should become a professional tool that students are comfortable using and questioning, much like Excel once did when it first entered accounting education. When taught thoughtfully, AI doesn’t replace learning; it reshapes it, pushing students to focus less on mechanical tasks and more on analysis, judgment, and ethical responsibility
Chris Easton, CEO of Applied Logic Software LLC, shares his practical experience in building a real-world AI-first Application in a specific industry.
The whole event can be viewed below: