A concise briefing for Ontario CPA partners on why controlled AI operating systems are practical now, not next year — and which workflows to map first.
Can AI complete real multi-step work?
The clearest public proxy for whether AI can complete complex work — not merely suggest it. The 75% line is the long-task reliability waterline.
Table view
| Quarter | Model | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 ’24 | GPT-4 era | 40% |
| Q2 ’25 | Claude 3.5 | 49% |
| Q4 ’25 | Opus 4.5 | 81% |
| Q2 ’26 | Opus 4.7 · GPT-5.5 | 88% |
What changed in the economics?
- $ / 1M output tokens
List price per million output tokens for leading models, as published by their makers. The highest price fell from $75 in early 2024 to $25–30 in 2026, about 2.5 to 3 times lower, while the score in chart 01 rose from 40% to 88%. The $10 and $15 bars are lower-priced models from the middle of 2024.
Table view
| Quarter | $ / 1M output tokens |
|---|---|
| Q1 ’24 | $60, $75 |
| Q2 ’24 | $10, $15 |
| Q4 ’25 | $25 |
| Q1 ’26 | $25 |
| Q2 ’26 | $30 |
Eight new primitives — one operating layer.
Did not exist together a year ago
Persistent memory
Context survives across sessions and tools.
Durable workflows
Long jobs survive timeouts and restarts.
Sub-agent coordination
Supervisors dispatch specialists in parallel.
Reliable computer use
Drives accounting and tax software.
Messaging integration
Email, SMS & Teams as native channels.
Governed tool access
MCP-secured, audit-logged, partner-scoped.
Skills marketplace
Reusable, vetted capability packages.
Structured outputs
Schema-validated work product, not freeform.
What this means for Ontario CPA firms
Quality at scale
Standardized, consistent work product with fewer manual touchpoints across the firm.
Capacity unlocked
Expand advisory and higher-value work without proportional headcount growth.
Risk under control
PIPEDA-aware, audit-trailed, partner-reviewed workflows from day one.
Compounding advantage
Firms that map carefully in 2026 build an operating advantage for the next decade.
The inflection — by the numbers
- Tax and accounting firms using AI, 2024 → 2025
- 9%41%
- Wolters Kluwer, Future Ready Accountant, October 2025. A global survey of tax and accounting professionals.
- Firms planning to increase AI investment over the next three years
- 77%
- Wolters Kluwer, the same report.
- Saved per employee, per month, as reported by firms using AI
- 18hrs
- Karbon, State of AI in Accounting 2025, February 2025. Self-reported, from more than 500 accounting professionals.
- Share of AI-driven returns captured by the 20% of companies that lead
- 74%
- PwC, AI Performance Study, 2026. 1,217 companies surveyed.
Most of the return goes to a few. Map workflows before procurement — then decide what to automate, what to review, what stays human judgment.
The capability is real. The compliance posture is real. The firms that map this carefully in 2026 will compound a structural advantage — and the firms I trust most are still asking the right questions, not buying the loudest tool.
For the charts and the four figures above:
- Anthropic release notes & Opus 4.7 announcement
- OpenAI GPT-5.5 system card & API pricing
- SWE-bench Verified leaderboard
- Wolters Kluwer, Future Ready Accountant 2025
- Karbon, State of AI in Accounting 2025
- PwC, AI Performance Study 2026
Also consulted for the April brief:
- Google Gemini release notes
- CPA.com / AICPA productivity data
- Thomson Reuters 2026 SOP report
- Sage 2026 SMB accounting adoption
- NorBot internal CPA market research