From Experimentation to Impact: Building High-Value AI Use Cases in Accounting

Note: The Live Virtual course is presented in collaboration with CPA Western Provinces. The content is applicable to all participants. If you have questions regarding this course, please contact pdregistration@cpaalberta.ca.

Overview:

This course helps accounting professionals identify and design high-impact AI use cases within their organizations. Rather than focusing on tools, it introduces a practical framework for selecting the right problems, evaluating feasibility, and ensuring AI delivers real business value. You will learn how to move beyond experimentation and build use cases that improve efficiency, insight, and decision-making. The course also covers key considerations, including workflow design and professional oversight.

Most AI projects in professional services firms don’t fail because the technology doesn’t work. They fail because employees resist, trust breaks down, and leaders underestimate the behavioural and cultural shift required. Research shows that 63% of AI implementation challenges stem from human factors, not technical ones. For accounting firms, where professional judgment, client trust, and regulatory defensibility are non-negotiable, the stakes of getting the people side wrong are especially high. This course gives accounting leaders the framework and tools to lead that change with intention. 

• Professional competence: Knowing how to evaluate and prioritize AI opportunities, rather than simply adopting tools, is becoming part of the competence CPAs are expected to maintain as day-to-day workflows change. 
• Defensible adoption: A clear, repeatable way to map a workflow and build the business case, the ARIA approach taught in this session, gives firms something they can stand behind if a regulator, client, or auditor ever asks how an AI use case was selected and governed. 
• CPD value: This session qualifies for 1 verifiable PD hour, contributing toward your ongoing professional development requirements. 
• Built for leaders, not technologists: Partners and managers are the ones who will be asked to lead their teams through 

Learning Objectives:

Upon completing this course, you should be able to:  

• Identify high-impact AI opportunities in accounting workflows 
  
• Recognize common pitfalls that cause AI initiatives to fail 
  
• Apply a practical framework (ARIA) for evaluating and prioritizing AI use cases 
  
• Connect AI opportunities to measurable business outcomes 
  
• Define the human oversight, governance, and professional responsibility needed to keep 
  
• AI-assisted work defensible
  

Who Will Benefit: 

Designed for partners, firm leaders, and senior managers in audit, tax, and financial reporting who are responsible for leading teams through AI adoption and need practical, human-centred approaches to managing resistance, building trust, and sustaining professional standards.