---
title: "Will AI Replace Accountants? (2026)"
description: "BLS rates accountants' exposure to AI as very high. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the 2025–2035 outlook (+5.0% projected)."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-accountants"
last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z"
---

# Will AI Replace Accountants? (2026)

**Short answer:** AI will reshape this job more than most, but BLS does not forecast it disappearing. The exposure is among the highest BLS measured, yet it still projects employment to grow faster than average.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics places accountants in its very high AI exposure category, among the occupations most exposed to current AI. BLS projects employment to change by +5.0% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 115,300 openings a year.

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BLS relative AI exposure | Very high | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories |
| NueCareer AI-resilience score | 12/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database |
| Projected employment change | +5.0% | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Openings a year | 115,300 | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Median annual wage | $83,680 | BLS OEWS May 2025 |

## Exposure categories

| BLS category | Occupations |
| --- | --- |
| Low | 203 |
| Moderate | 194 |
| High | 190 |
| Very high (this job) | 199 |

Exposure means AI could be or has been used to assist with or complete some of the work. BLS says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains, automation probability or wage effects. Method: https://www.bls.gov/emp/publications/ai-exposure-categories.htm

## What holds up

- Face-to-face discussions: 4.5/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships: 3.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Making decisions and solving problems: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## What AI reaches first

- Processing information: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Working with computers: 4.6/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Repeating the same tasks: 4.0/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Documenting/recording information: 3.9/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## O\*NET tasks

- Review accounts for discrepancies and reconcile differences.
- Compute taxes owed and prepare tax returns, ensuring compliance with payment, reporting, or other tax requirements.
- Prepare adjusting journal entries.
- Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions.
- Review data about material assets, net worth, liabilities, capital stock, surplus, income, or expenditures.
- Prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, or other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.

## Related careers less exposed to AI than accountants

- [Insurance Appraiser, Auto Damage](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-appraiser-auto-damage): BLS exposure High, median $78,240
- [Fundraiser](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fundraiser): BLS exposure High, median $72,550; [Will AI replace fundraisers?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-fundraisers)
- [Labor Relations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/labor-relations-specialist): BLS exposure High, median $95,420

## FAQ

**Will AI replace accountants?**

AI will reshape this job more than most, but BLS does not forecast it disappearing. The exposure is among the highest BLS measured, yet it still projects employment to grow faster than average. BLS defines exposure as AI being able to assist with or complete some of the work, and says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains or wage effects. BLS projects employment to change by +5.0% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 115,300 openings a year.

**How exposed are accountants to AI?**

BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Accountants are in the very high category, alongside 198 other occupations. The categories combine five public measures of where AI could be or already is used, and they compare occupations with each other rather than giving an absolute risk.

**What parts of an accountant's job can AI do?**

In O\*NET's description of the work, the parts that overlap most with what AI handles well are processing information, working with computers and repeating the same tasks. The parts that hold up best are face-to-face discussions, establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships and making decisions and solving problems. These come from O\*NET ratings of how important each activity is to the job, read through NueCareer's AI-resilience method.

**Is being an accountant a safe career from AI?**

On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, accountants score 12 out of 100, higher than 4% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $83,680 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025). No job is fully safe from technological change, but the federal exposure category and the projected openings are the two numbers worth weighing.

**What careers similar to accountants are less exposed to AI?**

Insurance Appraiser, Auto Damage (high exposure, $78,240 median), Fundraiser (high exposure, $72,550 median), Labor Relations Specialist (high exposure, $95,420 median). Each is in a lower BLS exposure category than accountants, and most are listed by O\*NET as related to the work.

Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/accountant.

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology