The AI-Ready Firm | Why Marketers Are Driving the Smart Tech Revolution in Accounting

Accounting firms are waking up to the reality that artificial intelligence is no longer a future-forward trend. It’s a right-now imperative. But while much of the conversation around AI focuses on automation, productivity and disruption, there’s a quieter story playing out in firm marketing departments: the rise of the marketer as the connector between technology and transformation.

In the second episode of Amplify’s “Forward Focus” podcast season, we spoke with four professionals who are deeply embedded in their firms’ journeys toward AI readiness: Alice Grey Harrison, Josh Woods, Laura Metz and Mike Jones. What emerged is a story about strategy, alignment and using technology to amplify human value, not replace it.

AI is no longer the domain of IT. It’s being integrated into marketing, sales, operations and client experience. And in many firms, marketing leaders are the ones stitching these initiatives together.

AI Isn’t a Tool. It’s a Team Strategy.

Harrison has taken a proactive approach to AI adoption. As a consultant with AGH Consulting who has decades of experience in internal communications, she understands that the firm’s brand isn’t just external — it’s internal alignment, shared values and a willingness to evolve.

So instead of treating AI as a marketing initiative, she helped build a cross-functional AI strategy committee involving audit, tax, operations and HR. “The most important thing we’ve done is make AI a firmwide conversation,” she explains. “Because the way AI shows up in marketing is different than how it shows up in audit. But the strategy can’t live in silos.”

That committee is focused not only on exploring tools but also on educating employees and testing use cases. One of the most powerful tactics? Creating internal cohorts to test generative AI tools and report back on what works, what doesn’t and how it could be scaled. “People aren’t afraid of AI,” Harrison says. “They’re afraid of looking stupid. So our job is to make the learning curve safe.”

AI readiness doesn’t start with automation. It starts with alignment.

Smarter Systems > More Tools

While many firms are still looking for the “right” AI solution, others are taking a more practical approach. They are looking at how to get more out of the tools they already have. That’s what Woods, the director of practice growth at Lane Gorman Trubitt, is focused on.

“We were sitting on an underutilized tech stack,” he shares, “and we realized we could do a lot more with what we already had.” That meant revisiting HubSpot not just as a marketing automation platform, but as a firm-wide CRM that could support business developers with automated follow-ups, content delivery and pipeline visibility.

His work demonstrates how automation can enhance relationships rather than depersonalize them. By giving BD professionals better tools to manage outreach, Woods has helped shift the perception of marketing tech from “nice to have” to “critical infrastructure.”

And perhaps most importantly, he’s started reframing success internally. “It’s not about volume,” he explains. “It’s about freeing people to do the things only they can do while the systems take care of the rest.”

The New Content Model

One of the biggest marketing challenges in accounting has always been getting technical professionals to contribute to content. But Metz, senior growth manager at HCVT, has found a solution: capture once, repurpose many times.

Instead of waiting for subject matter experts to write articles, her team records Zoom interviews with them, then uses AI tools like Copilot or Otter.ai to transcribe and repurpose that content into articles, blog posts, social media snippets and even internal messaging.

“It’s honestly changed the game,” Metz says. “We can create strong, on-brand content in a fraction of the time, and our experts sound brilliant because we’re capturing them in their element.”

This AI-enabled workflow increases output and reduces friction, especially for professionals who struggle with writing. It also helps preserve the firm’s voice while expanding its thought leadership footprint.

More than efficiency, it’s empowerment. And that’s what makes it sustainable.

Scale with Humanity

Of course, AI isn’t just about what happens inside the firm. It’s also changing how we connect outside, like in business development. For Jones, co-founder of Resound, this is where marketers can make a big difference.

“Marketing needs to help BD scale without losing what makes relationships meaningful,” he says. Tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, AI-driven lead scoring and CRM integration can help firms prioritize who to reach out to and when, but they’re only powerful when used intentionally.

“Your most expensive professionals don’t need to do the early outreach,” Jones adds. “That’s where tech and marketing can step in and tee up the conversation.”

For marketers, this means thinking beyond campaigns. It means architecting systems that balance scale and authenticity. Where automation supports, but doesn’t replace, human connection.

The Role of Marketing in an AI-First Future

Marketers aren’t just telling the firm’s story anymore. They’re helping build it. As firms navigate digital transformation, it’s often the marketing team that has the clearest view across departments, the skills to communicate change and the experience to operationalize new processes.

That makes marketing the natural home for early AI experimentation and a key player in making AI real, not theoretical.

And while the tools will continue to evolve, the goal will be to help people do better work. Whether it’s freeing business developers from admin tasks, helping SMEs share their voice or educating staff through cross-functional committees, marketing is the bridge between vision and action.

As Harrison puts it, “The job of marketing isn’t just to promote what the firm does. It’s to lead how the firm grows.”

That’s the real frontier of AI readiness. And the firms that embrace it will be the ones that thrive in the next chapter.

Interested in hearing more? Listen to the full podcast episode, or see what else we’re talking about on AAM’s podcast, Amplify! This resource, and many more are available to AAM Members. Find out what membership in AAM can do for your firm and your career as an accounting marketer.