AI Isn’t Coming for Your Job—It’s Coming for Your Busywork.

AI replaces tasks. Accountants replace uncertainty.

Artificial intelligence is not a pink slip; it is a productivity accelerator. In this Accounting ARC episode, hosts Liz Mason, CPA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, explain how firms use automation to remove low-value tasks and redirect time to judgment, communication, and decision support. 

Resistance guarantees obsolescence. Curiosity creates advantage.
A familiar claim—“AI will put us out of business”—gets a hard reset here. If your value is data entry, replacement is likely. If your value is insight and advocacy, AI is leverage. The throughline: automate the busywork; elevate the human work. 

Pricing should reflect outcomes—not minutes saved by machines.
Faster does not mean cheaper. When automation yields timelier, cleaner, and more useful deliverables, value increases. The risk is not AI; it is failing to communicate that value and “getting fired by your own automation.” 

We still need builders. The back office becomes an AI shop.
Advisory moves to the front, but firms still need people who can design prompts, validate outputs, chain models, and monitor agentic AI. Structured, technical communication becomes a core competency. Humans stay in the loop for quality, ethics, and context. 

Adoption cannot wait. The rate of change accelerates every week.
This wave moves faster than the last. Waiting widens the gap. To help firms build fluency now, the Center offers multiple entry points: 

• The Impact of Machine Learning on Auditors – Explore how machine learning is reshaping audit processes—from anomaly detection to predictive analytics—and what that means for auditor judgment, risk assessment, and assurance quality.  

• ChatGPT: Accountant’s Friend or Foe – Discover how accountants can safely and effectively integrate generative AI into daily workflows. 

• Leveraging ChatGPT: Unleash the Power – Learn prompt engineering skills that show you how to ask the questions in a way that not only makes you so much better at what you do, but brings out the best in serving stakeholders, including staff, clients, and society. 

• Introduction to Generative AI (Self-Study) – A no-cost on-ramp (with a partner discount) that orients practitioners to foundational concepts and safe, effective use cases. 

• How Automation and AI Are Enhancing Management Accountants – A CPE-backed session led by Donny Shimamoto that connects AI concepts to management reporting, performance, and decision support.  

Human trust still wins. Empathy, clarity, and accessibility matter.
No model sits with a client to map life goals to a tax plan. That human connection—paired with machine-enhanced speed—is the differentiator. AI expands accessibility too: voice interfaces help more users engage, learn, and ask “all the dumb questions” with zero judgment. 

Come learn with us—live.
Mark your calendar for Tax Season Readiness: Practical Steps for a Smoother Busy Season on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, 2–3:30 p.m. ET—an interactive webinar that includes an Accounting ARC Live recording with Mason, Patrick, Shimamoto, and guest Katelynn Hopson, an accounting professor at Arkansas Tech University. Join to see AI-enabled tactics you can use before filing crunch time.  

AI is an “and,” not an “or.” Automate the tasks. Elevate the value. Start now—with guidance, guardrails, and real-world examples you can put to work this quarter.

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