How YBL is evolving with AI while keeping client relationships strong

Mike Libbey literally grew up at his firm, YBL. At 17 years old, he started doing odd jobs for his father, Ross, when they were operating out of the living room. And in 2026, he officially became CEO.

Mike has spent the last few years developing YBL around AI, moving from a traditional compliance model to a virtual CFO and advisory offering. The team is now 35-strong, with over 40 vibe-coded tools to help the firm deliver exceptional outcomes to every single client. And Mike shares his journey on YouTube, helping firms around the world learn about AI in accounting, pricing, systems, and change management.

Father-son duo, Ross and Mike Libbey

In 2025, YBL won the Karbon Excellence Award for AI Innovation.

Speaking on the Karbon Excellence Awards podcast after the win, Mike described what happened the first time he showed his team what he had been building with AI:

“I was showing them some of the tools that I was building, and we created a little bit of an army of vibe coders overnight because they saw what was possible.”

Automating the routine and focusing on the relationships

Since embedding AI further into the firm, YBL has reported 30% less time to close monthly books, 25% fewer follow-up emails, and a 14-point NPS increase in how clients rate their monthly check-ins.

YBL’s app, TaxPilot, helps clients review finalized tax data, explore savings opportunities, and plan ahead with DIY tools that simulate financial scenarios.

But Mike is careful about where to draw the line with AI. “Something you want to be consciously aware of is still keeping that human connection,” he told Twyla Verhelst, CPA on the podcast. 

In fact, automating the manual and repetitive work has made YBL's client relationships more personal, not less. “We've actually been able to personalize things considerably more because of AI,” said Mike.

YBL clients, Diana and Chalo Fernandez, get to experience that in practice.

Diana and Chalo are co-founders of Chalo’s Coffee. They own the entire vertical—planting, growing, milling, exporting, importing, roasting, and packaging—with roots that run five generations deep in the coffee fields of Colombia. 

When Diana and Chalo started with YBL, their banking and records lived across Excel spreadsheets and Google Drive, and they were quickly outgrowing this arrangement.

“You can have so much passion, you can have so many dreams, but if the numbers don't make sense, there's going to be a time you have to close your doors,” says Chalo. “We need that rock behind us that we can count on.”

Mike cherishes the long-standing relationship between YBL and Chalo’s, where he has had the privilege of witnessing the evolution of the business alongside the strategic conversations he deeply enjoys:

“We've seen Chalo's evolve from a simple smaller startup shop to expanding, acquiring, and growing aggressively. Having those regular conversations with them, getting to know them on the human level has been very exciting.”

Karbon is what keeps those conversations from disappearing under admin. The Karbon for Clients portal gives Diana and Chalo one secure place to hand over documents, and it does the chasing so YBL doesn't have to.

“Karbon has allowed us to create a much more beneficial relationship on both sides with Chalo's, because Karbon automatically reaches out, automatically reminds them, it allows them a safe and secure spot for them to upload their documents.”

An AI-first accounting firm

In August 2026, Mike hired for his first AI-specific role, an AI Solutions Architect. The role will drive efficiencies across the firm by eradicating manual processes and ensuring the firm’s 40+ existing apps stay polished, maintained, and enhanced. It will also enable Mike and his team to serve their clients more deeply with custom micro-niche apps built just for them.

“That's actually the part I'm most excited about with the greatest opportunity in my eyes,” Mike wrote in the first edition of his newsletter, The AI-First Firm. “Becoming a truly financially integrated partner, not just filing clients' taxes. And that's not a phrase I'm just testing out, it's what I believe.”

Key results

• Streamlined client communications

• Enhanced client relationships

• Automated client request emails

• Secure client portal to request and manage client documents