What This CIO Learned Building an AI Strategy for Firms

Where is AI reshaping strategic Direction for Accounting Firms? AI is not a productivity tool anymore. It's really about reshaping how firms think about growth, about talent, about services. The other part is really around talent evolution, where the traditional pyramid is flattening, where you need fewer people being able to do those repetitive work and more people who can interpret, validate and advise.

That's where the real implications for hiring, training and career paths are changing. David Amer is our special guest today. The Chief Innovation Information Officer for Anschenbloc and Anchin, headquartered in New York. I've been with them for 18 years.

Is AI creating the greatest internal tension inside firm AI is making everything faster. So what happens to those billable hours? Being able to look at AI as an embedded workflow and not a bolt on being able to work invisibly seamless, where AI is part of work getting done is also going to be a big one. I think that's going to change where right now we're see a lot of the bolt on.

This Is AI reality. Inside Firms, a series on accounting voices where a select group of senior firm leaders answer the same five AI related questions based on what they're seeing, deciding and being held accountable for in their firms. David Emmer is our special guest today. David, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me. David. We'll get a quick intro from you in a moment but first I want to honor five tech companies that are supporting this series and genuinely shaping how AI has been applied inside accounting firms. We have Field Guide, the AI native platform for audit and advisory firms instead, the first AI Tax agent for end to end research, planning, filing and Defense Carbon, the global leader AI powered practice management software digits the AI powered financial intelligence platform for accounting firms and filed the Intelligent Tax workspace for preparation and review automation.

Great companies, great tech and great partners for accounting firms. So David M. Emma, lovely to have you with us. Tell us briefly who you are and what you do and then we'll hit our five questions.

The Chief Innovation Information Officer for Anscheblock and Anchin, headquartered in New York. I've been with them for 18 years working with different teams, helping people challenge the status quo, think differently and rolling out the best technologies for people to be able to work the most efficiently and get the most out of their day to day work. It's a great job title, Chief Information and Innovation Officer. Is that as glamorous as it sounds, we get to wear a lot of different hats, have a lot of different responsibilities and I have the privilege of being able to really work with everybody throughout the firm, which really is a privilege.

So let's hit question one, David. Where is AI reshaping strategic direction for accounting firms? AI is not a productivity tool anymore. It's really about reshaping how firms think about growth, about talent, about services.

You know, three areas stand out. There's the service delivery, you know, work that was historically manual, like audit testing, tax prep, document review, is becoming AI assisted. Work that used to take hours is now done in minutes. The challenge is thinking of how the models of operating models are going to have to change.

The other part of it is really around value proposition to the clients, right where clients don't want more hours anymore, they want to be able to get answers, they want faster responses. AI accelerates that move from the compliance to advisory. And the firms that are leaning in are creating entirely new advisory revenue streams. The other part is really around talent evolution, where the traditional pyramid is flattening, where you need fewer people being able to do those repetitive work and more people who can interpret, validate and advise.

That's where the real implications for hiring, training and career paths are changing. It's not all glory, though. Some firms are getting things wrong with AI. Where are those areas showing up?

David, in your view? I think the biggest challenge is underestimating data readiness. There's many organizations that have struggled with data, the quality of the data, data being in different systems. AI is only as good as the data behind it.

So firms that jump in to AI without addressing the data quality, the data governance and the data integration are going to struggle to really get the most out of AI. And the other part, which is maybe even more important, is around change management. The biggest barrier isn't technology. It's people's fear, skepticism, and lack of training on knowing how to use the technology.

So being able to not necessarily treat this the way we've treated projects in the past, but really being able to handhold people to think differently about how they're leveraging this new type of technology. And as we head into uncertain times, the tech is changing as the leadership needs to change as well. What leadership decisions do you feel regards AI are going to matter most in the next few years as the game changes? So one that I mentioned earlier already was operating model.

Do you redesign the firm or protect the curve model? Are you willing to rethink workflows, pricing, or even organizational structures? The other part would be, you know, build versus buy versus partner. You have to be able to place your bets somewhere.

You can't invest everywhere. You have to decide where AI will help differentiate your firm. Decide where to invest internally versus leveraging vendors or building it with vendors partnering. The other part, there's a couple more.

One would be around data strategy ownership mentioned that and I'm going to keep mentioning that. Data really has to be treated as a strategic asset. And really the firms that struggle around the data will really not be able to get the full value out of the AI risk posture. Our industry is risk averse with the speed of change.

Does that also cause us to change the way we look at risk, where that happy balance is? And then the last part really be around talent and getting people upskilled. That's where the leadership decisions and these are not IT decisions. These are firm level leadership decisions.

These are such terrific answers. I'm glad you pointed out the operating model because some firms are not thinking ahead and what kind of firm they want to be and AI is going to affect that big time. Question four on our list, David, is where is AI creating the greatest internal tension inside firms? I can think of several going back to the operating model.

Again, AI is making everything faster. So what happens those billable hours? You know, that's one question again. Yeah, again, it's the innovation versus risk.

You know, it. And innovation teams really want to move fast and that collides with managing risk. So being able to find that happy balance. We've always had this concept of centralized IT where we can manage it.

We know what's going on. Do we centralize AI? Do we standardize on AI tools across the firm? Do we let teams experiment and have different pockets of innovation?

How you go about looking at that? Our firms are built on consistency. Yeah, we're a very risk averse industry. But AI is demanding quick adoption and being able to make that adjustment.

This is AI reality inside firms. Five questions, one leader, 12 minutes. No script, no spin, just real life perspective from inside a firm. You'll find the full series on accounting voices across YouTube, LinkedIn, CPA, trendlines and all the major podcast platforms.

David, it's great to have you with us. We've got one question left, so we're asking you to get out your crystal ball and we're asking by 2027 or even 2028, what will separate the leading firms from the rest? So this is gonna be some repetitive thoughts here, but firms with integrated data ecosystems, those that are investing in their data, cleaning their data, connecting their data, governing their data, that's gonna really fuel everything. Being able to look at AI as an embedded workflow and not a bolt on being able to work invisibly seamless, where AI is part of work, getting done is also going to be a big one.

I think that's going to change where right now we still see a lot of the bolt on redefining the talent model. We're already starting to see the change, but people who are trained to work with AI and not around AI are the ones that are going to succeed. Very important that we're going to have to have clear AI governance and trust frameworks. Clients will care deeply about how their data being used, how AI is using it, and also again the benefit and the advisory of being able to get those questions answered very quickly.

So having that AI governance and trust framework and then again being able to make sure that we're offering not just internal efficiency but really better insights, better advice and just overall better outcomes. In short, the winners will be the firms that move from experimenting with AI to operating as an AI embedded organization. Well, these are exceptional high level insights. David, before I sign you off, a big thank you to instead and carbon field guide filed and digits for their alignment across this important conversation and the perspective they bring to how AI is unfolding outside accounting firms.

David, it's wonderful to have you on with us today. We really appreciate your time, your candor and for being part of this conversation and giving us these real world insights. Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me.