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- Everyone says AI will replace accountants. The economics says otherwise.
Everyone says AI will replace accountants. The economics says otherwise.
The idea that AI will replace accountants ignores some basic economics. The question we should be asking is: what happens to demand when the cost of accounting changes?
Alastair Barlow
August 15, 2026
It feels like you can’t open LinkedIn these days without seeing a news story proclaiming the death of one industry or another at the hands of AI.
Bloomberg recently reported that AI-related layoffs in the US financial activities and information sectors have accelerated in 2026 - now averaging 28,000 job losses per month, according to government data.
Accounting is an AI-exposed occupation, sure. But in what way? I just can’t agree with such deterministic statements as that of Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, who said: "So white-collar work, where you're sitting down at a computer - either being, you know, a lawyer, or an accountant, or a project manager, or a marketing person - most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months."
I think he’s oversimplifying something he’s not qualified to talk about. He might be an authority on AI, but how much does he know about the accounting profession?