Sep 25, 2026 · 59 min
AI reshapes accounting economics from audits to firm workflows
Tips to Roll Out AI In Your Firm, AI Squeezing Audit Fees
The episode connects AI’s financial risks with practical adoption choices that could change audit costs, firm structures, and accounting software.
- 1AI financing links data centers, contractors, suppliers, workers, and housing markets, creating risks beyond technology companies.
- 2Documenting firm processes before automating them gives accounting practices a practical path toward AI adoption.
- 3AI-powered audits could expand transaction coverage, reduce routine labor, and make smaller modern audit firms more viable.
Don't miss
The discussion of Christina Ho’s AI-powered audit work turns automation from a workflow convenience into a possible challenge to the traditional audit-firm model.
The brief
Blake Oliver and David examine whether interconnected AI financing could turn a data-center slowdown into a broader economic shock, echoing concerns from the 2008 mortgage crisis.
They question the credibility of AI-adjusted EBITDA after a French property company counted projected savings before realizing them, reviving debates over invented accounting metrics.
The practical counterpoint is a firm-wide SOP marathon: record how work gets done, turn transcripts into procedures with Claude and Process Street, then automate one step at a time.
Christina Ho’s work with Oath Verified frames AI-powered audits as a structural shift, potentially lowering routine labor costs, increasing transaction coverage, and enabling smaller audit firms.
The episode closes by weighing IRS mistakes, tax-evasion enforcement, and Mercury Books against the harder question of whether bank-built accounting software can serve real operating businesses.