California CPA January/February 2025 | Page 6

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news & trends
A recent survey of tax and finance leaders regarding AI found :
“ Staff departures , including at the highest levels of a business , are inevitable . Yet , many companies push succession planning activities to the back burner , or don ’ t formalize the process . Some organizations have no plan at all .”
– Steve Saah , Executive Director of the Finance and Accounting Permanent Placement Practice ,
Robert Half

AI Rising

87 % said generative AI will drive increased efficiency and effectiveness .
77 % said hiring data scientists is either “ very ” or “ moderately ” important .
75 % reported that they ’ re in the early stages of their generative AI journey .
53 % said a lack of budget ranked as their biggest barrier to success with generative AI .
52 % labelled their current use of generative AI in tax and finance functions as “ exploratory .”
– EY the numbers

$ 149,358

The debt amount of the average household .
– WalletHub

7 in 10

The number of Americans who say they have financial regrets from 2024 .
– NerdWallet

50 %+

The number of accounting firms that said they ’ ll raise fees this year .
– Ignition

27.7M

The number of individuals choosing to work independently fulltime , an increase from 13.6 million in 2020 .
– MBO Partners

$ 4B

The amount the U . S . Treasury has recovered in fraudulent and improper payments by using AI .
– U . S . Treasury

51 %

The number of workers who said they ’ ve suffered burnout in the last year .
– Grant Thornton
4 CALIFORNIA CPA JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025 www . calcpa . org