2026 Accounting Predictions: What’s Next for the Industry?

Remember when accounting meant handwritten ledger books, manual journal entries, and calculators permanently fixed to the corner of a desk?

Yeah, those days are probably gone. But even as spreadsheets replaced paper and ERPs replaced filing cabinets, the core structure of accounting didn’t fundamentally change.

Month-end closes were reactive. Insights arrived late. And accountants spent most of their time preparing data rather than interpreting it.

And if you’re a CEO, CFO, Controller, or someone who manages accounting at your firm, you’ve likely felt the strain too.

Gabi, who manages operations at StartPlaying, the world’s largest gameplay community, described the reality many finance teams face:

“When I joined, everything was manual. During year-end financials, I was spending hours buried in CSV exports, pivot tables, reconciling transactions, and pulling reports for investors.”

This experience is far from unique. In fact, according to Deloitte, finance teams still spend 60–70% of their time on manual, transactional work, limiting their ability to deliver strategic insights. Late closes, misstatements, and burnout have become common side effects of outdated accounting workflows.

AI in Accounting: Is something changing fundamentally?

COO Harrison Apitz-Grossman explains the shift at Wiza, a leading data intelligence platform:

“Now AI takes care of our back office. That lets our accountants focus on high-leverage work. It’s exactly what we needed for the next stage of Wiza’s journey.”

Can this be the future for your firm too? Let’s explore that together!

In the world of accounting,

• 2023 was the year of Skepticism

• 2024 was the year of Experimentation

• 2025 was the year of Separating Signal from Noise, cutting through hype and focusing on tools that delivered real operational value.

What’s ahead for 2026? Our CEO Alex Lee, a two-times Y Combinator founder and Co-founder of Truewind, predicts what’s next for the accounting industry in 2026. 

To understand where accounting is headed in 2026, we need to look at how AI adoption has evolved.

Trend #1: AI Expertise Will Move In-House

By 2026, finance leaders will no longer rely on external consultants to “manage AI.”

The best accounting teams will:

• Build internal AI fluency

• Understand how automation works

• Govern AI-driven workflows responsibly

Although, a Gartner CFO survey shows that while 78% of CFOs are investing in AI, fewer than 50% believe their teams are equipped to use it effectively. Closing that gap will define the next phase of accounting transformation.

Hence, the most effective AI accounting solutions will embed education and upskilling directly into the user experience, not treat learning as an afterthought. That is why Truewind is creating a community of accountants, where we share educational content to get your teams up-to-speed - like Vibe Accounting 101, The Close Assistant, and Revenue Reconciliations Without the Spreadsheet Circus.

Trend #2: Outcome-Based Pricing Will Replace Hourly Models

AI can fundamentally change the economics of accounting. Traditional hourly billing penalizes efficiency. Automation exposes that misalignment.

In 2026, we’ll see accelerated movement toward:

• Fixed-fee pricing

• Outcome-based models

• Value-driven engagements

This shift is especially impactful for enterprises and midmarket companies, where automation improves both margins and scalability.

According to PitchBook, private-equity-backed acquisitions of accounting firms continue to rise, driven by the ability to standardize workflows and deploy automation across portfolios.

Trend #3: Accountants Will Become Reviewers and Systems Builders

One of the most important accounting trends for 2026 is role transformation.

Automation will remove the need for mundane junior-level prep work:

• Transaction categorization

• Initial reconciliations

• Manual workpaper creation

But it will increase the importance of:

• Review

• Judgment

• Exception handling

• Systems design

Accountants will evolve from doers to reviewers, orchestrating systems of autonomous agents that execute routine tasks while they focus on insight and oversight.

This transformation also protects institutional knowledge, critical in a profession facing mass retirement. The AICPA estimates that over 75% of CPAs will retire within the next 15 years, making systemized knowledge more important than ever. 

That’s the reason Truewind has introduced the Workpaper Agent, that will create 

Final Takeaway

We believe the future of accounting isn’t about working longer hours or adopting more tools.

It’s about:

• Redesigning workflows

• Elevating roles

• Preserving knowledge, and

• Aligning incentives with outcomes

AI won’t replace accountants.

But accountants who embrace AI, thoughtfully and structurally, will shape the next generation of the profession.