AI won’t fix your culture. You will

Every accounting firm I talk with is investing both their time and money in artificial intelligence. New tools, new pilots, new policies. But here’s what I see repeatedly: The firms pulling ahead aren’t the ones with the best technology. They’re the ones with the strongest evolving culture.

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AI changes how work gets done, who does it, and what “good” looks like. That stirs up real emotions. A senior associate wonders if the skills she spent years building still matter. A manager quietly worries he’ll look behind if he admits he doesn’t understand the tools. A partner isn’t sure how to price work that now takes half the time. 

These aren’t technology problems. They’re human problems, and culture is how leaders solve them. That is, only if they intentionally continue to change and evolve. Culture has to be an intentional action. 

Lessons from ‘The Culture Code’

In “The Culture Code,” Daniel Coyle studied high-performing groups like Pixar, the Navy SEALs and the San Antonio Spurs. He found they share three skills: They build safety, share vulnerability and establish purpose. Each one maps directly to AI adoption.

• Build safety. People won’t experiment with AI if they fear looking foolish or making a mistake. Leaders send the signal. Celebrate the person who tried a new prompt and shared what didn’t work.
• Share vulnerability. Coyle’s research shows that trust follows vulnerability, not the other way around. When a managing partner says, “I’m still learning this too,” the whole firm exhales. Go first.
• Establish purpose. Your team needs to hear, again and again, why this matters. AI isn’t about replacing people. It’s about freeing them from busywork so they can do the advisory, relationship-driven work clients value most.

Lessons from ‘Culture by Design’

David Friedman’s “Culture by Design” adds the practical next step. His core idea is that culture is defined by behaviors, not values. A value like “innovation” on the breakroom wall changes nothing. A clearly described behavior, practiced and reinforced every week, changes everything.

Friedman calls these behaviors “fundamentals,” and he urges leaders to build them into hiring, onboarding and daily rituals. For an AI-ready firm, that might look like:

• “Ask how this could be done faster before doing it the old way.”
• “Share one thing you learned with a teammate each week.”
• “Solve problems without blame, so mistakes become lessons.”

Write them down. Talk about one at every team meeting. Recognize people who live them.

Your move, leaders

AI will keep evolving faster than any of us can predict. Your culture is what lets your people evolve with it. So this week, try three things:

• Go first. Tell your team one AI experiment that flopped and what you learned.
• Name the behaviors. Pick two or three AI-ready fundamentals and put them in writing.
• Repeat the why. Remind your people that AI gives them more time for the work that matters.

The technology is the easy part. The culture is the leadership work, and it’s the work only you can do.