AI Adoption Isn't About Technology. It's About Leadership, Policy, and People.

AI Adoption Isn't About Technology. It's About Leadership, Policy, and People.

AI adoption isn't just changing technology. It's changing how organizations lead.  In this episode of This Week in Accounting AI, Paul Peterson and Matt Barbieri share lessons from an AI conference and discuss why the biggest challenges businesses face today are organizational, not technical. They explore why leading by example is more effective than mandating AI, the legal and governance risks many companies are overlooking, and why every organization needs an AI policy.  The conversation also dives into a compelling perspective on the emotional side of transformation: why professionals often need to "grieve" before embracing AI.  Along the way, Paul and Matt examine how AI is making knowledge workers more productive, why execution may matter more than patents, and what business leaders can learn from both software development and the World Cup.  This Week in Accounting AI is produced by Wiss, an AI-optimized CPA and advisory firm serving privately-held and venture-backed businesses.

AI Won't Replace Your Culture. It Will Expose It.

Technology isn't the hardest part of AI adoption. Leadership is. In this episode of This Week in Accounting AI, Paul Peterson and Matt Barbieri discuss why accounting firms and finance organizations are entering a new phase of transformation where culture, communication, and human connection matter more than ever. They explore what CFOs, controllers, CPAs, and firm leaders are experiencing as AI reshapes the workplace, why remote work has changed professional development, how organizations should rethink expectations, and why AI is creating opportunities for higher-value work instead of simply replacing jobs. Through real experiences inside Wiss, Paul and Matt explain why successful AI implementation depends on organizational alignment as much as technology. This Week in Accounting AI is produced by Wiss, an AI-optimized CPA and advisory firm serving privately-held and venture-backed businesses.

Legacy Data, Lean Startups, and the Real Reason Stanford Students Walked Out on Google

When hundreds of Stanford students walked out on Google's CEO at commencement, most people filed it under "campus drama." Paul Peterson and Matt Barbieri see it differently. In this episode of This Week in Accounting AI, the Wiss hosts unpack what that walkout signals about generational fear, why AI company leaders keep doubling down on job-displacement narratives that serve shareholders more than workers, and why the most admired companies deploying AI right now are focused on making their products better, not just cutting headcount. They also get into the stark differences between legacy businesses, SaaS companies, and AI-native startups, a 100-year-old client building an entirely new product from proprietary data, CEOs using Claude for FP&A; (and what they're missing), and why changing your mind frequently right now is the smartest thing you can do. This Week in Accounting AI is produced by Wiss, an AI-optimized CPA and advisory firm serving privately-held and venture-backed businesses.

KKR, Baker Tilly, and the Wealth Transfer Nobody's Talking About — What PE Consolidation Really Means for Accountants

56% of CFOs say they've adopted AI. Only 7% say they're getting a return on it. This week, Paul Peterson and Matt Barbieri open with that Gartner data, and make the case that most finance leaders aren't just underperforming on AI, they're measuring the wrong thing entirely. Speed to close is not the same as speed to the information that runs a business. From there, they get into the week's PE headlines: Anchin's acquisition by Baker Tilly and KKR's investment into Crowe. Paul breaks down what actually happens in these deals, the wealth transfer, the loss of accountant agency, and the disappearance of a career path the profession has relied on for decades. The episode ends where it started: with a question about what accounting actually is. Transactional, or relational? Paul's answer is clear. This Week in Accounting AI is produced by Wiss, an AI-optimized CPA and advisory firm serving privately-held and venture-backed businesses.

AI Native Accounting Is The Three-Point Line - And Most CFOs are Still Playing Post-Up Ball

Paul Peterson and Matt Barbieri just returned from four weeks on the road — BDO's firm conference in Vegas, an investor summit in San Francisco, Boston Tech Week, and NYC Tech Week — and the takeaway is stark: the gap between accounting firms embracing AI and those waiting it out is widening fast. In this episode of This Week in Accounting AI, they break down what they saw across all four stops, unpack the Rillet vs. Artifact debate (AI-native ERP vs. agnostic intelligence layer), and get into why most CFOs can't answer the most basic question about their own close process. They also cover agent stickiness, why most AI agents die after the first build, how to think about designing AI usage vs. just experimenting, and why Paul's NBA three-point-line analogy may be the clearest frame yet for what AI-native accounting actually means for competitive advantage. This Week in Accounting AI is produced by Wiss, an AI-optimized CPA and advisory firm serving privately-held and venture-backed businesses.