Listen to this articleThe basics:
- KPMG uses AI to enhance audits, risk detection and client insights
- EisnerAmper integrates AI to automate onboarding and improve tax, audit and advisory efficiency
- LMC Advisors leverages AI dashboards to give clients real-time financial clarity and deeper insights
- Firms emphasize human oversight and ethical standards to ensure accuracy and trust in AI outputs
Despite their reputation as number crunchers, CPAs have always had hands-on relationships with clients, guiding them through the nuances of taxes and other matters. But as accountants embrace artificial intelligence, will CPAs lose that high-touch approach?
KPMG is actively using AI to “drive bold, fast, and responsible transformation and reimagine how we deliver value,” according to Short Hills Office Managing Partner Jeff Knight. “We are investing in AI to address client challenges, enhance business strategies, and support rewarding careers. AI is a strategic imperative across every service line. From accelerating audit cycles to enhancing risk detection and generating tailored insights, we are helping our people move faster and smarter. And we do it responsibly, guided by our Trusted AI Framework,” the firm’s set of ethical standards.
That’s important, because some programs have been known to produce “AI hallucinations,” giving results that are factually incorrect, non-existent or misleading, despite appearing confident and plausible.
KPMG professionals apply “rigorous validation protocols to every AI-generated output,” Knight explained. “Responses are never used in isolation — each insight is reviewed by our professionals to ensure accuracy. This human-in-the-loop model ensures that AI enhances, rather than replaces, expert judgment.”
The firm integrates AI across audit, tax and advisory teams, he added. “In audit, KPMG Clara [the firm’s global “smart audit” platform] uses AI to review documents, summarize communications, and accelerate timelines while enhancing precision. In tax, KPMG Digital Gateway streamlines compliance, scenario modeling, and data analysis. Advisory teams use KPMG Velocity to apply AI in diagnostics, strategic planning, and operational optimization. For client delivery, KPMG Workbench enables multiple AI agents to streamline delivery and enhance productivity across teams internally.”
These platforms incorporate agentic capabilities, basically acting autonomously to handle routine processes, enabling flesh-and-blood professionals to focus on higher-value insights, he noted.
Gaining acceptance
It’s an approach that’s increasingly gaining acceptance. According to the KPMG Q3 2025 AI Quarterly Pulse Survey, 42% of organizations have already deployed AI agents, up from just 11% two quarters ago. “The challenge lies in scaling responsibly: data quality and cybersecurity remain top concerns — balancing innovation with governance is essential to ensure AI delivers real impact,” Knight said.
Other CPA firms are also leveraging the benefits of AI. At EisnerAmper, “We made a decision to embrace artificial intelligence, based on a desire to free up colleagues from non-value-added tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-level activities,” according to David Frigeri, chief AI officer at the assurance, tax, advisory, and outsourcing solutions firm. “Our goal is to enable our team to spend more time engaging with business owners, understanding their goals and challenges, and ultimately bringing more value to our clients. By automating routine tasks, we aim to enhance efficiency and provide a more integrated client experience.”
EisnerAmper is using AI across various applications, including audit, tax and advisory services. One significant area of focus is the onboarding of client documentation, a historically manual process involving a large volume of documents.
“AI helps us standardize and classify these documents, making the onboarding process more efficient,” explains Frigeri. “Additionally, AI is being used in the delivery of work, partnering with firms like CCH to capture value through quality checks. This approach allows our firm to continue to offer traditional tasks like tax returns and audits while enhancing our focus on advisory services.” CCH, a subsidiary of the global information services company Wolters Kluwer, provides software and information to accounting firms, corporate tax departments, and other tax professionals.
EisnerAmper continues to consider additional ways to use artificial intelligence. “We’re exploring how AI could transform our client interactions,” Frigeri says. “For example, we’re developing capabilities that would analyze data like W-2 forms to surface insights our clients might not see otherwise — things like employee turnover trends that deviate from industry norms. The vision is that AI could flag these patterns and even project financial impacts, like increased hiring costs, allowing our advisory teams to shift from simply identifying issues to partnering with clients on proactive solutions. We’re testing these approaches now to see where they can add the most value.”
The opportunities associated with artificial intelligence “are vast,” he noted. “AI allows us to increase our core revenue by delivering more projects in the same period of time. It also enables recurring revenue and higher-level advisory work, providing clients with more of the firm’s time and a continuously integrated experience.”
Ensuring accuracy
But challenges remain, particularly “the variability of large language model outputs,” Frigeri added. “However, EisnerAmper invests heavily in building guardrails to ensure accuracy and adheres to guidelines set by regulatory bodies like the SEC. This is vital, because we are in the trust business, first and foremost. So, our firm ensures that AI outputs are always double-checked and never sent blindly to clients. Continuous education on ethical and responsible AI use is a priority, ensuring that EisnerAmper remains a trusted advisor in the AI era.”
[W]e are in the trust business, first and foremost. So, our firm ensures that AI outputs are always double-checked and never sent blindly to clients.
– David Frigeri, EisnerAmper chief AI officer
CPA firms that integrate AI into their operations can enhance the level of services they provide, according to Richard Di Palma, a partner at the Springfield office of LMC. “Following the integration of Stephen A. Kepniss & Associates PC into LMC Advisors LLC and the Ascend network, we’ve been able to leverage AI across all service lines to provide the white-glove service our clients expect,” he explained. “This technology enhancement allows us to deliver deeper insights and more responsive services to businesses throughout New Jersey and the broader tri-state area, fundamentally changing how we create value for every engagement.”
Pairing AI with experienced professionals means that clients get “comprehensive financial analysis that goes beyond traditional reporting — uncovering trends, identifying opportunities, and providing actionable insights that weren’t visible before,” he added. “Our assurance clients benefit from sophisticated analytical procedures that detect patterns and anomalies with unprecedented precision. The technology enables real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and automated benchmarking that elevates every engagement from compliance to strategic advisory. In tax, one of the biggest advantages of AI is how it captures and organizes original tax documents and shares information across our service lines.”
Di Palma offered the example of fractional CFO clients, where “we’ve implemented AI-enhanced executive dashboards that transform overwhelming financial data into strategic clarity. These dashboards provide real-time visibility into KPIs, cash flow projections, and operational metrics — all updating automatically as new data flows in.”
AI doesn’t make decisions “but provides unprecedented clarity that enables better decision-making,” he noted. “One client described it as ‘finally having a clear windshield instead of looking through fog.’ The dashboards highlight trends, flag anomalies, and present complex financial relationships in intuitive visual formats that make sense instantly. This clarity allows business owners to spot opportunities and risks weeks earlier, make data-driven decisions with confidence, and have genuinely strategic conversations with their leadership teams. What previously required hours of manual analysis now happens instantly, with insights that might have been completely missed now prominently displayed and actionable.”
‘A tool, not a solution’
Despite its capabilities, AI does not get the last word. “AI is a tool, not a solution,” declared Di Palma. “Every AI-generated analysis undergoes rigorous human review. Our multilayered quality control includes partner review of all AI-assisted conclusions, cross-validation against traditional methods, and comprehensive documentation. Professional skepticism remains paramount — we verify every material calculation and conclusion before client delivery.”
He sees Al complementing human CPAs, instead of replacing them. “The future of public accounting lies in combining AI’s computational power with human expertise in areas like relationship management, strategic thinking, and nuanced professional services that clients truly value.”
