Adapting Your Leadership Style in an AI-Driven World

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just a headline. It’s fast becoming the backbone of many industries, including accounting and finance. Within a few years, the very definition of “normal work” will change. 

For CPAs and finance leaders, understanding how leadership must evolve is now a business imperative. 

Accounting has always been a discipline of careful measurement and risk manage­ment. That caution has served the profession well, but it can also slow action. With AI, the traditional playbook for assessing risk no longer applies. The biggest risks are unknown unknowns, and waiting for perfect data before acting will leave firms behind. Future leaders need a mindset shift from reacting after the facts are known to proactively shaping how AI is applied inside their firms and for their clients. 

Future Shock in Plain Sight

Today, most firms are still experimenting with AI or debating when to start. Yet, in the next five to 10 years we’ll see the following:

• Audit procedures will increasingly draw on full-population data testing and continuous monitoring. Partners will review AI-flagged exceptions and inconsistencies instead of random samples or those deemed questionable by their teams.
• Tax compliance and planning will increasingly be automated. Systems will track regulatory changes and client transactions in near real time, preparing drafts that CPAs can finalize.
• Client expectations will rise sharply. Businesses will expect on-demand insight and proactive risk advice rather than periodic reports. This may include value-added services that are not currently within the consideration set for most accounting firms.

These changes may feel like aiming at a moving target. But what seems ambitious now will soon be the baseline. Firms that delay will find their operating model outdated.

What’s Driving the Shift?

The numbers are unmistakable:

• 58% of U.S. finance leaders used AI in 2024, up from 37% in 2023, according to Gartner (reported by Journal of Accountancy).
• An AICPA/CIMA survey found 30% of CPA firms are actively experimenting with generative AI, while those “not considering it” dropped from 56% to 38% in one year.

Meanwhile, the IRS is signaling more data-driven compliance, and state privacy rules continue to tighten. AI is moving from optional pilot to standard infrastruc­ture at a pace the accounting profession has rarely seen.

Redefining Leadership for the AI Era

The real disruption will not be software. It will be how leadership within the indus­try evolves. In an AI-driven profession, leadership becomes even more important to differentiation and driving results. Responsibilities like designing how people and intelligent machines create insight will drive trust and performance. To move forward proactively, accounting leaders must do the following:

• Define business outcomes clearly. Leaders must set measurable goals — faster close cycles, higher audit coverage, quicker delivery of tax strategies — and empower teams to select the right combination of human expertise and AI to achieve them.
• Integrate human judgment into every AI process. AI can draft tax memos, reconcile accounts and flag anomalies. Leaders must ensure that every output passes through defined review and approval steps so that decisions remain transparent, defensible and regulator-ready.
• Reallocate work strategically, not just seasonally. Rather than overhauling workflows every quarter, leaders should schedule periodic reviews to identify tasks that can move to automation and redirect talent toward higher-value advisory services, forecasting and client strategy.
• Invest in people development. Strategic communication, ethical reasoning and complex problem-solving, often labeled soft skills, can be the hardest to develop yet the most valuable. These skills enable teams to explain, challenge and enhance AI results, ensuring that technology amplifies professional judgment instead of replacing it.

Put simply, tomorrow’s CPA leader is less a technical checker and more a designer of how knowledge is created, tested and delivered.

Three Bold Moves to Prepare Now

To stay ahead of the curve and seize AI’s upside, firms can start with the following leadership moves — practical today and scalable for the decade ahead.

• Make AI learning a core system. Treat AI fluency as a required competency for every role. This isn’t just education; it’s how a firm stays inventive and ensures that people and technology evolve together.
  • Require ongoing AI training and hands-on use for everyone from interns to partners.
  • Assign specialties within the team — for example, tax research automation, audit analytics or client advisory AI — so that expertise deepens across functions.
  • Hold monthly AI roundtables to share client scenarios, test tools and spot risks.
  • Bring in outside AI experts and key clients to broaden perspective and anticipate long-term needs.
• Redesign core workflows around insight. Use automation to create capacity for higher-value services, turning AI’s efficiency into revenue growth, not just cost savings.
  • Shift toward exception-based reviews instead of traditional manual sampling.
  • Standardize how AI drafts tax positions or reconciliations, with clear CPA sign-offs.
  • Redirect saved hours into forward-looking engagements such as multi-year tax planning, risk modeling and strategic financial advice.
• Rebuild the firm for long-term client value. Lead clients into the AI era as confidently as you lead your own team. Firms that help clients navigate these changes will deepen relationships and open new revenue streams.
  • Track how AI is reshaping industries your clients operate in — healthcare, manufacturing, retail — and turn those insights into proactive advice.
  • Adjust pricing to reflect outcomes and strategic insight rather than hours.
  • Strengthen data security and privacy practices so clients view your firm as a guardian of trust in an automated world.

Lead the Next Decade Now

Change is accelerating, but CPAs’ long tradition of trust, accuracy and ethical judgment remains the profession’s edge. That is, if leaders take action now.

Begin with one bold move like launching an AI learning system, redesigning a core workflow or reframing how you deliver and price client value. Each action builds capacity for the next and creates momen­tum that compounds over time.

Far from being a burden, AI is a chance to work better, deploy talent more creatively and grow profitability. By rethinking leadership today, CPAs can define the future of their profession — before the future defines it for them.

Michael Tiger, CPA, ACC, MBA, is a certified executive and leadership development coach and founder of The Tiger’s Edge, LLC. He can be reached at coach@michaeltiger.com.