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FloQast Study Reveals Wide Gap Between the AI Ambitions of Accounting Teams and Their Ability to Execute
New industry benchmark shows AI-native finance teams cut manual work nearly in half and close two days faster
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FloQast, the Accounting Workflow Automation Platform created by accountants for accountants, today announced the results of a new industry report examining how accounting and finance teams are adopting AI. The findings, based on independent research across accounting and finance professionals in the US and UK, reveal a striking disconnect between AI ambition and execution. While 85% of accounting teams have made AI a strategic priority, only 10% are using it extensively. The study also found that the barriers holding them back have less to do with technology and more to do with trust, training, and governance.
The organizations pulling ahead are not simply the ones with the most advanced tools. They are the ones where leadership made a deliberate decision to build the controls foundation, the governance structure, and the team capability before scaling their AI investment.
According to the report, finance teams remain burdened by manual work, and the pressure to deliver faster, cleaner, and more defensible numbers continues to rise:
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Six in ten accountants spend 40% or more of their time on tasks such as reconciliations, data entry, and other busy work that does not require an actual accountant.
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Nearly one in five spend more than 60% of their week on manual tasks. That is three full days.
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57% of close cycles take seven days or more.
Unlike other industries that measure AI success purely in terms of speed and efficiency, accounting carries an additional requirement. Namely, every output must be traceable, defensible, and signable by a human who stands behind it. Indeed, survey respondents cited the lack of traceability of AI outputs as a top adoption barrier.
“The accounting profession doesn’t have an AI ambition problem, it has an execution problem,” said FloQast co-founder and CEO Mike Whitmire, CPA (inactive), FCA. “What this research makes clear is that, in accounting, the real test of AI is whether a human can confidently sign off on that work and defend it to an auditor. The organizations succeeding with AI are the ones that are building for that reality from the start.”
“Our AI adoption was a success because Atrium treated it as a priority rather than a side experiment,” said Dan Hollman, Senior Director Of Accounting Solutions, Atrium Hospitality. “The structure we picked up from AI gave us a repeatable way to evaluate, govern, and scale workflows, so we weren’t inventing the rules as we went. Leadership backed that with real governance and then stood up an AI Center of Excellence to run it company-wide. The momentum here is collaborative and organizational, not one team’s project.”
