Answered on camera by Dan Milikow, CEO of iShoot.direct · 1:21 · transcript and sources below
People overwhelmingly ask AI their tax and accounting questions before they even think about searching for a CPA. When the answer cites a partner at an accounting firm, it means the call may come before the person asked their network or Googled for relevant experts.
Yes — business owners and CFOs now put specific, situational tax questions to AI before they ever call an accountant.
Imagine a CFO is weighing a remote hire in another state and wants to know the tax exposure before it's real. So before the hire happens, before anyone calls an accountant, they run it by AI: how do we handle payroll taxes for a remote part-time employee in Nevada? Look at that question. That's not a keyword search. It's specific, situational — half a sentence of context. And that's typical now. The search box used to find sources; now it finds answers.
AI recommends CPAs by citing the named CPA whose content answers the exact question asked.
AI works the problem — registration, withholding, whether one hire creates a filing obligation — and the answer points to a named CPA laying it out for one part-time hire in Nevada. The CFO wasn't shopping for an accountant. One showed up inside the answer anyway.
Yes — at least 1 in 5 Americans planned to use AI to help with their tax filings this year[3].
Let's face it, everyone is asking AI. 2.5 billion questions hit ChatGPT daily[1]. Health alone is 230 million questions a week on ChatGPT[2]. Here's a tough stat for CPAs: at least 1 in 5 Americans are planning to use AI in their tax filings this year[3]. Think about your own behavior. Have you asked AI any tough questions in the last couple of days? Maybe the last couple of hours? If you did, you might have noticed the experts cited in the answer. Maybe you even searched them up. It's a pattern so common it has a name: discover on ChatGPT, hire on Google. So when a citation names a CPA, the call happens before anyone even started looking for a referral.