Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley record on-site in Orlando to debrief a packed week around AICPA ENGAGE 2026 and the annual Thought Leader/40 Under 40 mashup. They open with the Rise 2040 vision project, highlighting mega-trends like the profession’s “great identity shift,” AI as a strategic force multiplier, globalization, and the emerging “trust paradox” created by artificial intelligence. The hosts describe intense roundtable discussions among young tech-enabled CPAs and seasoned thought leaders on associations, evolving business models, and how state societies must reimagine member engagement in a digital, AI-driven world.

The conversation then tackles AI and private equity—“AIPE”—and how late-career partners, unfunded buyouts, and underinvestment in technology are driving firms toward PE ownership and forced modernization. They explore return-to-office realities, cybersecurity and AI-powered threats, including federal actions around advanced AI models, and the profession’s persistent self-confidence gap with technology. Randy shares ENGAGE highlights, including his 40th year speaking, a standing-room-only Tech Update and AI prompting session, and a 200-vendor exhibit hall featuring every major publisher and cloud platform. They close with reflections on AI’s ubiquity at ENGAGE, main-stage guests like Ryan Reynolds, and why networking at these events still moves the profession forward.

In this episode of the Accounting Technology Lab, Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley welcome Kashif Ali, founder of TaxGPT, for a discussion on why general-purpose AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are not sufficient for professional tax research and advisory work. Kashif shares his unconventional journey from journalism to software development and entrepreneurship, ultimately leading to the creation of TaxGPT after experiencing firsthand the difficulty of finding reliable tax information.

The conversation explores the evolution of AI in tax research, beginning with source-cited answers and progressing toward autonomous agent-based workflows. Kashif explains how TaxGPT differs from consumer AI tools by focusing exclusively on tax and accounting use cases, implementing hallucination controls, maintaining vetted tax knowledge bases, and emphasizing security and professional trust.

The discussion also covers agent orchestration, AI operating systems, workflow automation, and the future of accounting firms. Kashif argues that AI should eliminate repetitive compliance work while elevating the value of professional judgment. The panel examines the growing productivity gap between professionals who effectively leverage AI and those who do not. Looking ahead, Kashif predicts firms will increasingly deploy specialized AI agents, reduce reliance on outsourcing, shift toward advisory services, and potentially move away from billable hours toward outcome-based pricing.

Key Quotes

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Episode Highlights

Topics Covered

• Why general AI models struggle with tax research
• Hallucinations and trust in AI-generated answers
• TaxGPT's specialized tax knowledge architecture
• Agent orchestration and workflow automation
• AI governance and security considerations
• Model Context Protocols (MCPs)
• AI operating systems for accounting firms
• Future of tax preparation and review workflows
• One-person million-dollar firms
• Outcome-based pricing versus billable hours

Major Takeaways

• General-purpose AI is optimized for engagement, not professional tax accuracy.
• Specialized tax AI requires curated knowledge, citations, and hallucination controls.
• Agent-based workflows are beginning to automate entire tax processes.
• Human judgment remains critical despite increasing automation.
• Firms that embrace AI are widening the productivity gap over competitors.
• AI will increasingly shift accountants from compliance toward advisory services.

In this episode of the Accounting Technology Lab, Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley provide an in-depth recap of the 2026 Black Ore AI Tax Summit held at Nasdaq Tower in New York City. The event brought together many of the accounting profession’s most influential leaders, technology innovators, managing partners, and AI experts to discuss the rapidly evolving future of AI-powered tax preparation and advisory services.

The hosts review Black Ore's launch of Tax Autopilot and discuss industry predictions that fully autonomous individual tax preparation may arrive by 2027, with autonomous entity tax preparation following shortly thereafter. They explore the profession’s growing labor shortage, the role of AI in addressing staffing challenges, and the importance of high-quality, structured data as the foundation for successful AI implementations.

The episode also highlights presentations from leaders at Ramp, EisnerAmper, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, BDO, and other major firms. Key themes included AI-native accounting firms, the transition from compliance work to advisory services, enterprise AI adoption, data governance, process redesign, and the growing influence of private equity in the accounting profession.

Ultimately, the discussion paints a picture of a profession entering a transformational era where AI will automate routine work and create new opportunities for firms to deliver higher-value advisory services.

Key Takeaways

• AI-powered tax preparation is rapidly maturing.
• Black Ore predicts fully autonomous tax preparation by 2027.
• Labor shortages are accelerating adoption of AI solutions.
• Data quality remains the largest barrier to successful AI implementation.
• Firms are increasingly shifting talent from compliance work toward advisory services.
• AI-native accounting platforms may require a complete redesign of accounting workflows.
• Private equity continues to reshape the accounting profession.

Notable Quotes

TimestampQuote
02:28 | "By the end of 2027 we would have fully autonomous tax prep."
03:07 | "They wanted to produce a 100% optimal AI with 99% accuracy."
08:24 | "ROI should not matter at first."
08:39 | "You have to let chaos reign, and then rein in the chaos."
13:20 | "Getting the data quality up was the most significant impediment to their use of AI."
15:51 | "I'm not sure we're not going to have to have another level of revolution in the accounting space."
19:34 | "If we have the less mundane compliance work done for us automatically, can we use our talent to turn it over to advisory?"
21:22 | "Advisory requires us to become more comfortable with managing risk and not eliminating it."
27:05 | "It was probably the best event that I've been to in 10 or 15 years."
27:28 | "It was kind of like the accounting and tax equivalent of the Met Gala."