AI exposure: Accountants and Auditors
Examine, analyze, and interpret accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others. Install or advise on systems of recording costs or other financial and budgetary data.
Reading this score
computed49.5% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Accountants and Auditors at the 88th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 3.3 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 30 tasks it averages 2.08 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Inspect cash on hand, notes receivable and payable, negotiable securities, and canceled checks..., at 73.3%. The least is Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud,..., at 11.2%. A gap of 62.1% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within business and financial operations occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 48 roles in the group is 47.1%, and only 19 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 30 tasks, 24 are currently banded exposed, 5 assisted and 1 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
30 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inspect cash on hand, notes receivable and payable, negotiable securities, and canceled checks to confirm records are accurate. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.71 | exposed |
| Analyze business operations, trends, costs, revenues, financial commitments, and obligations to project future revenues and expenses or to provide advice. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.64 | exposed |
| Examine inventory to verify journal and ledger entries. | 73.3% | 26.7% | 0.0% | 3.20 | exposed |
| Prepare adjusting journal entries. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 4.29 | exposed |
| Report to management regarding the finances of establishment. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 3.93 | exposed |
| Develop, maintain, or analyze budgets, preparing periodic reports that compare budgeted costs to actual costs. | 64.2% | 23.3% | 12.5% | 3.64 | exposed |
| Compute taxes owed and prepare tax returns, ensuring compliance with payment, reporting, or other tax requirements. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.29 | exposed |
| Prepare detailed reports on audit findings. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Prepare, analyze, or verify annual reports, financial statements, and other records, using accepted accounting and statistical procedures to assess financial condition and facilitate financial planning. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 4.07 | exposed |
| Review taxpayer accounts, and conduct audits on-site, by correspondence, or by summoning taxpayer to office. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 3.79 | exposed |
| Establish tables of accounts and assign entries to proper accounts. | 60.0% | 40.0% | 0.0% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards. | 53.7% | 29.6% | 16.7% | 4.60 | exposed |
| Supervise auditing of establishments, and determine scope of investigation required. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.86 | exposed |
| Develop, implement, modify, and document recordkeeping and accounting systems, making use of current computer technology. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 3.86 | exposed |
| Evaluate taxpayer finances to determine tax liability, using knowledge of interest and discount rates, annuities, valuation of stocks and bonds, and amortization valuation of depletable assets. | 46.7% | 53.3% | 0.0% | 3.86 | assisted |
| Report to management about asset utilization and audit results, and recommend changes in operations and financial activities. | 46.3% | 37.0% | 16.7% | 3.14 | exposed |
| Process invoices for payment. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.54 | exposed |
| Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.18 | exposed |
| Review data about material assets, net worth, liabilities, capital stock, surplus, income, or expenditures. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.94 | exposed |
| Confer with company officials about financial and regulatory matters. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.81 | exposed |
| Examine records and interview workers to ensure recording of transactions and compliance with laws and regulations. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.64 | exposed |
| Direct activities of personnel engaged in filing, recording, compiling, and transmitting financial records. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.47 | exposed |
| Audit payroll and personnel records to determine unemployment insurance premiums, workers' compensation coverage, liabilities, and compliance with tax laws. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.38 | exposed |
| Conduct pre-implementation audits to determine if systems and programs under development will work as planned. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.21 | exposed |
| Advise clients in areas such as compensation, employee health care benefits, the design of accounting or data processing systems, or long-range tax or estate plans. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.20 | exposed |
| Examine and evaluate financial and information systems, recommending controls to ensure system reliability and data integrity. | 37.5% | 37.5% | 25.0% | 3.69 | assisted |
| Examine whether the organization's objectives are reflected in its management activities, and whether employees understand the objectives. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 3.36 | assisted |
| Review accounts for discrepancies and reconcile differences. | 29.2% | 33.3% | 37.5% | 4.47 | assisted |
| Represent clients before taxing authorities and provide support during litigation involving financial issues. | 15.6% | 34.4% | 50.0% | 3.62 | assisted |
| Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud, or non-compliance with laws, regulations, and management policies. | 11.2% | 26.2% | 62.5% | 4.00 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 3.31 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 0.09 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.43 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.75 | 0-3 |
| Context | 2.08 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.86 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.