AI is forcing the accounting occupation to rethink one thing much more basic than workflows. It’s forcing corporations to rethink the very logic they use to cost. For years the trade has talked about transferring from hours to worth, but most pricing nonetheless quietly anchors itself to time. Extra effort meant extra price. Extra complexity meant a better price. And if a activity turned faster, the profit was often absorbed quite than handed on or restructured. AI cuts straight by means of that logic. It doesn’t substitute accountants. It replaces the components of accounting that used to justify sure pricing behaviours.
Throughout a current panel I hosted for the Accountex Digital with Sarah Gardener of Shaw Gibbs, Stuart Grosvenor of HB&O and Paul Clarke of Ookkee, the clearest sign was that AI isn’t just a tech shift. It’s an financial one. It adjustments what work seems to be like, what it prices to ship and what purchasers are actually paying for. And it means corporations now face a selection – redesign their pricing mannequin or be slowly overtaken by the work their very own know-how has made cheaper to supply.
One of many massive adjustments already taking place is the transfer in the direction of transactional pricing. Ten years in the past it felt area of interest. In the present day it’s quietly changing into the spine of contemporary, tech ahead corporations. HB&O use transaction counts to handle scope and defend margin. Paul went additional, explaining that Ookkee costs all purchasers this fashion as a result of enterprise house owners need readability and consistency. They don’t want a thriller field of hours and assumptions. They need to know what they’re paying for and why.
The attention-grabbing factor is that AI strengthens the case for transaction pricing quite than undermines it. Transactions don’t disappear simply because AI processes them sooner. They continue to be the financial basis of bookkeeping and monetary operations. What’s altering is the price to serve. If AI halves the work concerned in processing transactions, the temptation for weaker corporations will probably be to halve the worth. That might be a mistake. Quicker supply doesn’t diminish worth. It enhances it. The pace, accuracy and consistency AI brings could make monetary info extra helpful, extra well timed and extra actionable. Purchasers don’t purchase minutes. They purchase momentum.
That is the place the subsequent fault line seems. Software program prices are not one thing you possibly can conceal inside common overheads. They’re now a significant a part of the price to ship every shopper. But many corporations nonetheless deal with software program as an inner burden quite than a shopper dealing with useful resource. Sarah identified that some main merchandise within the US have elevated in worth by greater than 600 % lately, and lots of practices are nonetheless absorbing these rises quite than passing them by means of or constructing margin on high. This is mindless. If software program is a core ingredient of the service, it must be priced like some other ingredient. Tradespeople have been doing this eternally. Margin on labour and margin on supplies. The query comes – ought to accounting corporations undertake the identical lens? Companies that cling to the assumption that software program ought to all the time be offered on at price will merely watch their margins quietly disappear.
The complexity climbs additional once you consider agentic AI. Instruments that carry out duties mechanically within the background, chain duties collectively, interpret information and make selections about what to do subsequent. Brokers is not going to be free. Distributors will ultimately cost for them and people fashions are principally nonetheless unknown. It might be per motion, like Zapier. It might be capability primarily based. It might be bundle primarily based. No matter it turns into, the corporations who flourish would be the ones who look this actuality within the eye and construct agent exercise into their pricing mannequin as a substitute of hoping distributors hold it low cost. It additionally means positioning brokers as a part of the service, not one thing hidden within the again workplace. Purchasers ought to see the profit. If their work is being finished by an clever system that delivers pace and consistency, they need to perceive that worth and the agency ought to stand behind it quite than faux it’s merely a sooner human.
The larger problem is that price to serve is now transferring at a tempo most corporations can not measure. New instruments seem each week. Outdated instruments turn into out of date within the time it takes for a quarterly billing assessment. Follow administration methods, bureau payroll instruments and inner AI layers all carry prices that can’t merely be handed by means of to purchasers. Even Stuart admitted that if he understood his true price to serve final month, he’s not positive he does immediately. That’s the actuality of the AI period. Price fashions decay quick. Companies which have traditionally reviewed their pricing yearly will discover themselves outpaced earlier than the subsequent assessment even arrives.
This brings us to a very powerful shift of all. Companies can not worth the enter. They have to worth the end result. AI makes the invisible seen. If it now takes 5 minutes to finish one thing that after took an hour, purchasers will ultimately work that out. The reply is to not decrease the worth. The reply is to boost the worth. Quicker doesn’t imply cheaper. Quicker means higher. Quicker means extra correct. Quicker means extra helpful for resolution making. Quicker means your accountant has extra time to ask higher questions, problem assumptions and information selections. The work doesn’t lose value. It positive aspects weight.
That is why the consensus is that the outdated pricing playbook is not match for objective. The corporations that can thrive from listed below are the corporations that redesign their mannequin from the bottom up. They may deal with transactional pricing as a basis quite than a function. They may rethink how software program is costed and whether or not margin must be added. They may put together for agent primarily based pricing and be clear about how brokers help their service. They may spend money on understanding true price to serve in actual time. And they’re going to reposition their service so the dialog is not about minutes saved however influence created.
AI will make corporations sooner. It is not going to mechanically make them extra worthwhile. That relies upon completely on whether or not corporations rewrite their pricing playbook now or wait till their margins inform them it’s already too late.
