---
title: "Study: AI now beats licensed CPAs on structured accounting tasks"
url: https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/study-ai-now-beats-licensed-cpas-on-structured-accounting-tasks-53360c
source_name: "The Decoder"
source_url: https://the-decoder.com/ai-beats-licensed-accountants-on-speed-and-accuracy-but-still-cant-close-the-books-without-supervision/
published: 2026-10-02T11:15:24.000Z
topics: ["research", "llms"]
publisher: "Parallel Quant"
---

# Study: AI now beats licensed CPAs on structured accounting tasks

*2026-10-02 · Source: [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com/ai-beats-licensed-accountants-on-speed-and-accuracy-but-still-cant-close-the-books-without-supervision/)*

A Mercor study finds current AI models outperform licensed accountants on structured accounting tasks in both speed and accuracy. Eighteen months ago they lagged far behind. On the harder APEX Benchmark, no model completes every task, so AI still can't close the books without human oversight.

**Why it matters:** The jump from clearly behind to ahead in 18 months is a concrete measure of how fast professional-task capability is moving. The remaining gap is end-to-end reliability, which suggests near-term accounting work shifts toward supervising and reviewing AI rather than disappearing outright.

**Topics:** research, llms

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Read the original: https://the-decoder.com/ai-beats-licensed-accountants-on-speed-and-accuracy-but-still-cant-close-the-books-without-supervision/
Canonical: https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/study-ai-now-beats-licensed-cpas-on-structured-accounting-tasks-53360c
Published by Parallel Quant — https://www.parallelquant.com