Supporting Documents
AI and Accountants 2026 – A year on, what’s changed?
A year on from our last look at AI and the profession, CAW Network USA brought together three expert speakers and a moderator to ask a simple question: what has actually changed, and what do accountants need to do about it? The full recording is now available to watch on demand.
Hosted by David Powell, the session featured Campbell Robertson, founder of Boxwood Strategy Group; Jannie Wentzel, Chartered Accountant and partner and chief operating officer at Sentinel; and Chris Easton, CPA, Chartered Accountant and former CAW Network USA president. Nancy Chakabuda, Chartered Accountant, US CPA and vice president of CAW Network USA, moderated the panel discussion.
The audience has already made up its mind
Live polling during the session told a clear story. 79% of attendees said AI’s impact on audit and accounting is already happening, not something on the horizon. 85% said their organisation is currently using AI, 90% expect AI proficiency to become a requirement for new hires, and 91% said they embrace AI to enhance how they do their jobs.
From adoption to value
Campbell Robertson opened with a striking gap: while almost every finance function now reports some use of AI, very few describe their adoption as mature. He drew an important distinction between AI assistants, which answer a question and leave a human to act, and AI agents, which carry out multi-step tasks themselves. With agents, the control point moves, and many organisations haven’t yet decided where it has moved to.
Drawing on client examples in month-end close, exception handling and advisory work at smaller firms, Campbell showed how every project that started as a productivity exercise ended up as a controls project. He left attendees with four questions to put to their own firms:
- What AI tools are in use, including unofficial “shadow AI”?
- Where is the human approval gate, and is it documented?
- What evidence trail exists if an auditor or regulator asks?
- What was the measured benefit against the measured cost?
Governance means direction as well as control
Jannie Wentzel reminded attendees that governance is about direction, not just control. Alongside the risks of using AI and the threats posed by others using it, he highlighted a risk that often gets overlooked: the risk of not using AI at all.
He argued that smaller firms may actually be at an advantage, as they can adapt quickly. In his own firm, analysing several years of financial statements for a risk assessment has gone from days of work to around 20 minutes. His advice: don’t leave AI governance solely to IT, and don’t treat AI as a separate risk, as it touches almost every risk an organisation manages.
Building a vertical AI application in months
Chris Easton shared the story of building Catello, an AI-driven governance, risk and compliance platform, which went from idea to launch within a matter of months. He explained why specialist “vertical” AI tools, grounded in industry knowledge and company data, matter more than general-purpose models, and how MCP server integration now makes it far simpler to connect AI to existing business systems.
He also reflected on how quickly expectations have shifted. When this webinar series began in 2023, the panel expected major impact on the profession by 2035. The answer now is that it is happening today.
Panel highlights
The panel discussion covered the evolving role of the accountant, with speakers agreeing that humans remain accountable for decisions and that judgement, context and experience are becoming the core skills. The panel also explored managing AI costs, the importance of change management, why asking the right questions may matter more than data analytics skills, and the need for a fallback plan if AI systems fail mid-process.
The closing message from the panel was simple: don’t be afraid, embrace AI in a controlled way, and use this moment to define the opportunity for yourself, your firm and the profession.