AI Took Away the Entry-Level Work. Is Training About to Get Better?
KPMG is testing a new training tool called TaxSIM, developed with Centaurian AI. Instead of having new hires grind through thousands of hours of real client prep work to build judgment, TaxSIM throws them into rapid-fire simulated tax scenarios.
The IRS Made Hourly Billing a Compliance Risk. So Why Are You Still Doing It?
The IRS recently handed firm owners a perfect excuse to finally kill the billable hour (and a massive regulatory headache if they don’t). If you’re still charging by the hour for tax prep while using AI, you might accidentally be violating Circular 230.
AI Does Two Years of Bookkeeping in Four Hours. So Why Are Fees Going Up?
I just did two years of bookkeeping in four hours. Tax prep work is being automated, too. Meanwhile, CPA firms are raising fees by 8% a year. Something doesn't add up.
How KPMG's AI Dashboard Backfired
KPMG rolled out an AI usage dashboard in late 2025. The target, according to reporting we covered on the show, was roughly 75% of the working day. Three out of four days, you need to be in an AI tool, doing something. So what did KPMG's people do? They had AI summarize emails they'd already read. They asked it to make drawings. Anything to show activity on the dashboard. There's a name for this now: token maxxing.
The Private Equity Accounting Bet Is Starting to Look Shaky
CBIZ's stock is down 51% over the past year. The market is sending a signal. And if you've been watching private equity's push into accounting, you should pay attention to it.
AI Is Coming for Tax Pros, Not TurboTax
Intuit's stock is down 59%. Is AI really going to kill TurboTax? That’s the story on LinkedIn and on Wall Street right now. But as we discussed on a recent podcast episode, the real disruption target might be your firm.
The Accounting Trick Inflating the AI Bubble
If OpenAI doesn't IPO, or if the IPO disappoints, its paper gains start reversing. The index funds that bought in at inflated valuations start selling. The feedback loop runs in reverse. That's how bubbles pop. Not always in a dramatic crash, but in a slow correction as the gap between paper profits and real cash flows becomes impossible to ignore.
The Solo Firm Isn’t New. Its Ability to Scale Is.
The "firm of one" used to be a ceiling. It was the choice you made when you valued lifestyle over scale. You could have a great life, but you couldn't get rich. That ceiling just turned into a floor. Thanks to AI agents, the smallest firms will soon achieve the highest margins.
Could AI Clone QuickBooks? One Developer Already Did
If a self-taught developer can clone the core functionality of QuickBooks in a weekend, what does that say about the defensibility of accounting software?
Why Cost Accounting is the Wrong Way to Value Artificial Intelligence
AI can prepare a tax return. But is tax prep the bottleneck in your firm? If AI speeds up tax prep while the partner review queue moves at the same pace, your throughput remains the same. That’s the problem with applying cost accounting to the ROI of artificial intelligence.