Almost nine in 10 accountants surveyed by Intuit Inc. agreed that technology will play a significant role in the growth and expansion of their practices in the next year, CPA Practice Advisor reported.

The Intuit QuickBooks Accountant Technology Survey, which collected responses from 2,000 accountants in the United States, also found that accountants expect to spend an average of $15,800 on technology improvements and upgrades. Forty-eight percent expect to invest in and adopt automation tools and artificial intelligence, and 47 percent expect to invest in and adopt blockchain technology.

“AI has powerful potential, and accountants are hungry to capitalize on what it has to offer,” said Jeremy Sulzmann, vice president of Intuit QuickBooks Partners Segment. “We see this appetite today with emerging tech, such as generative AI, as accountants look for ways to leverage new technologies that create efficiencies and free up their time to pursue higher-value work and better serve their clients.”

The survey found that technology has implications for the future of the profession. Eighty-two percent said that it is creating more meaningful client interactions and 85 percent believe that technologies that “make way for more engaging work can help attract young talent and breathe new life into the industry.” That is an important consideration, as 94 percent identified fewer graduates entering the profession as one of the biggest obstacles to hiring and retention.

That decline is something that concerns most of the accountants surveyed; despite high levels of job satisfaction, 90 percent of then experienced hiring challenges over the past year.

Ninety-one percent have used technology to help meet clients’ evolving needs over the past two years, the survey found. Large majorities said that their clients have needed more support in the past two years with financial management (67 percent), filing taxes (62 percent), managing staffing costs (62 percent), and financial forecasting (65 percent).

The accountants surveyed still reported that they would like to use technology to serve their clients and grow their businesses. Thirty-eight percent said that they would like to improve the prediction of future business performance, and the same percentage would like to improve real-time business performance through better use of technology.

The Intuit QuickBooks Accounting Tech Forward Survey 2023 was an online survey commissioned by Intuit QuickBooks in January 2023 of 2,000 US accountants. Respondents’ average annual income is $98,837. Half of respondents (54 percent) are employed by an accounting firm or own an accounting firm. Forty-six percent of respondents are employed by a non-accounting business as an in-house accountant. Sixty-two percent of the respondents are between the ages of 35 and 54. Thirty-three percent have worked as an accountant for 1-5 years. Another 33 percent have been employed as an accountant for 6-10 years.