Are Businesses Expecting Too Much From AI?

Accounting and finance in New Zealand is moving through a period of rapid adjustment. After a difficult few years, many businesses had expected 2026 to bring more stability, steadier trading conditions, and a clearer path forward. Instead, the first half of the year has shown how quickly external pressures can flow into local business confidence, cost management, hiring decisions, and day-to-day financial planning.

For finance teams, the challenge is no longer just about reporting what has happened. Businesses need guidance in real time. They need support with cash flow, rising costs, changing compliance demands, and the practical use of new tools such as AI. This has placed accounting and finance professionals in a more strategic position, where technical accuracy must sit alongside advisory skills, commercial awareness, and the ability to help clients make confident decisions.

At the same time, expectations placed on the profession are changing. AI and automation are creating new efficiencies, but they are also raising new questions around trust, value, verification, and pricing. The result is a market where finance professionals are being asked to become stronger communicators, sharper problem solvers, and more forward-looking advisers.

“We are guides and strategists, not just number crunchers.”

On a recent NZ Market Update, Host Jacqui Fine, Senior Consultant, Accounting & Finance at people2people was joined by Guest Melanie Morris, Founder, Head Bookkeeper and Principal Trainer from Training and Beyond, to discuss how the accounting and finance landscape has shifted in the first half of 2026 and what professionals should be preparing for next.

A key theme from the discussion was that the market has not delivered the predictability many had hoped for. While there was cautious optimism at the end of 2025, global volatility, rising business costs, import pressures, fuel uncertainty, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis have all influenced the New Zealand market. For many clients, this has created pressure around cash flow, supplier payments, and financial decision-making, particularly around the end of the financial year.

This pressure has changed what businesses need from their finance teams. Accounting and finance professionals are increasingly expected to help clients understand not only where they stand, but what action they should take next. As Melanie explained, “clients just don’t want to know what happened last quarter or last year. They want to know what to do next.” That shift is pushing the profession further into real-time advisory, scenario planning, and practical business guidance.

AI was another major focus. Rather than viewing AI as a future trend, the discussion framed it as a current adoption curve, similar to the early days of cloud accounting. Innovators and early adopters are already using the technology, while the early majority is now beginning to engage with it more seriously. This creates an opportunity for finance professionals to lead, helping businesses understand where AI can improve productivity and where caution is still needed.

However, AI does not remove the need for core accounting knowledge. In fact, it may make verification even more important. AI tools can produce confident answers, but those answers still need to be reviewed by people who understand debits and credits, tax law, compliance, and the practical realities of business. The future finance professional will not simply know how to use AI, but how to question it, check it, and apply it responsibly.

The conversation also highlighted the growing importance of human skills. If AI can reduce time spent on repetitive compliance tasks, finance professionals have more room to build stronger client relationships. That means empathy, curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and communication will become just as important as technical capability. The ability to explain complexity in a way clients can act on will be a major advantage.

Looking ahead, the New Zealand market is likely to remain shaped by uncertainty. An election year may bring changes to legislation and compliance, while liquidations, closures, redundancies, and shifting skill needs continue to influence the job market. At the same time, finance teams will need to address a growing perception that if AI makes work faster, services should cost less. This makes value pricing an important conversation, especially when speed is supported by years of experience, judgement, and professional knowledge.

How can accounting and finance teams prepare for what comes next?

• Build AI capability, but make verification a non-negotiable part of every process.
• Focus on advisory skills that help clients make forward-looking decisions, not just review historical results.
• Strengthen cash flow conversations with clients and internal stakeholders.
• Invest in communication, empathy, and relationship-building as core professional skills.
• Review pricing models to reflect expertise, judgement, and value, not only time spent.
• Stay alert to legislative, compliance, and market changes that may affect business planning.