Can eight minutes of AI work overrule 23 years of experience?

Can 8 minutes of AI work overrule 23 years of experience?

I have asked myself this question every week for the last several months.

The honest answer is that AI has become the best junior I have ever hired. It works through the night. It never asks for leave. It produces a first draft of any report in minutes.

But three things keep me anchored to my own judgment.

I learned the first in a meeting last month. A promoter was explaining why his receivables had grown 40% year on year. The numbers added up. The narrative was coherent. AI had analysed the data and confirmed it was within normal industry range.

What AI couldn’t see was how the promoter looked at his CFO when the question came up. The pause that was a half second too long. The shift in the room.

The story was technically correct. It wasn’t true.

AI cannot read the room.

The second thing showed up in a Section 56 valuation. The data was incomplete. AI flagged it as insufficient and refused to proceed.

I did the valuation anyway. Not because I had perfect data, but because I had years of context about businesses like his. Some assumptions are defensible even without complete data. That call only experience can make.

AI waits for certainty. Practitioners make calls without it.

The third thing surfaced in a board paper for a share buyback. AI reviewed the structure. Compliant. Tax efficient. Properly disclosed. A textbook proposal.

What AI didn’t know was that the promoter had told minority shareholders something different in the meeting last month. The buyback price he had now proposed contradicted what he had committed verbally.

AI saw a clean transaction. I saw a credibility breach waiting to happen.

AI knows the file. It doesn’t know the history.

So can 8 minutes of AI work overrule 23 years of experience?

For the technical work, often yes. AI is faster, cheaper, and more consistent.

For the judgment work, not yet. And in my view, not anytime soon.

CA practice will not be replaced by AI. It will be replaced by CAs who use AI well.

That is a different problem entirely.