Will Accountants Really Be Replaced in Two Years? We Put the Claim to the Test

This week on Digi-Tools in Accrual World, Indi Tatla and John Toon are joined by new co-host Billie Mcloughlin for a packed episode of accounting tech news and fintech news covering some of the biggest raises, most practical product updates, and one very contentious claim from Microsoft's AI chief. The show kicks off with Allica Bank's $155 million Series D raise, which pushes the UK-focused business bank to a $1.2 billion valuation and into unicorn territory. The hosts unpack what the funding means for expansion into Northern Europe and whether an IPO or acquisition is the more likely exit. From there, the team covers Stacks, which has raised $23 million to push further into financial close automation and has launched an AI Flux Analysis tool to identify transaction variances, before moving on to Basis, an AI agent platform that has hit a $1.15 billion valuation after raising $100 million to build long-horizon agentic workflows across tax, audit and advisory functions inside accounting firms. On the more practical side, John runs through a substantial update from Active Workpapers, including the launch of Group Overview for managing portfolios of connected clients and a new integration with FreeAgent. Billie covers Xama AML's new client portal, which simplifies ID verification and multi-director onboarding, reducing the back-and-forth that has long made AML compliance a drag on practice time. John also looks at Briefcase's new accruals automation tool, which detects recurring expenses and suggests journal postings at month-end before automatically reversing them when the invoice arrives. The hosts discuss how Briefcase's iterative, practice-led approach to development has helped them release features that genuinely land. The episode also touches on the Crezco and iplicit partnership, which brings embedded payment functionality into iplicit's mid-market platform under the name iplicit Pay, and on Dytto, a new AI startup promising to free accountants from manual tasks, which receives a sceptical reception from all three hosts. The episode closes with a proper debate on the Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman's claim that accountants could be fully automated within two years. Billie, John and Indi push back on the timeline, drawing on adoption curves from cloud accounting and e-commerce, and make the case that professional judgment, regulatory accountability and client trust will slow the transition considerably. This episode is brought to you by Xledger, the mid-market accounting platform. Find out more at: https://www.xledger.com