AI Crushes Junior Accountants on Their Turf

🔥 What happened Researchers hired 12 licensed junior CPAs (avg. 5.5 years experience) to solve four realistic month-end close scenarios. Frontier AI models beat them on speed, accuracy, and cost — over an order of magnitude cheaper per task. Even the best human lost. 💡 Why it matters Eighteen months ago, top models scored below the average accountant (~37%). Today they ace the same tasks. That's a trillion-dollar paradox: benchmark scores soar, yet U.S. productivity stats show almost no AI bump. ⚡ Our take The tasks test exactly what AI excels at — detail-obsessed instruction following. Accountants aren't replaceable, but the wedge is already in the door.