Karbon AI Agents: The intelligence layer powering the modern accounting firm

The way accounting firms work is changing. Fast. 

Distributed teams, talent shortages, rising client expectations, and rapidly advancing technology have reshaped what it means to run a firm. Many accounting leaders feel it every day: the gap between what needs to be done and what their teams have capacity to do.

At Karbon, we believe AI agents are the bridge across that gap as trusted teammates built directly into the systems firms already use to run their business.

That’s what we’re building with Karbon AI Agents.

From managing work to getting it done

For over the past decade, accounting firms have relied on Karbon as their system of management, organizing communication, work, and client collaboration in one place. Many have optimized how they manage work to near perfection. Now, advances in AI are expanding what’s possible far beyond management alone.

With Karbon AI Agents, we’re taking the next step: helping firms not just manage work, but get it done.

These AI-powered teammates don’t just document work. They move it forward. They automate the repetitive jobs to be done and assist in the strategic ones so your firm can focus on the decisions, conversations, and insights with clients that drive value.

What are Karbon AI Agents, and how do they work?

Karbon AI Agents are AI-powered teammates that operate inside your existing workflows. They perform real work and enable you to make strategic decisions based on the unique context of your firm.

Agents are modeled after roles that already exist inside an accounting firm and equipped with capabilities mapped to the tasks that role performs. For example:

• Bookkeeper: Prepares workpapers, reconciles transactions, and follows up with clients for missing documents.

• Tax Admin: Prepares returns, applies compliance rules, and drafts client summaries.

• Fractional CFO: Builds forecasts, models ‘what-if’ scenarios, and creates client-ready reports.

• Client Onboarding Specialist: Collects information, validates entities, and configures workflows automatically.

Because these AI agents live inside Karbon, rather than being bolted on, they understand your firm’s data, your clients, and your communication history. They have the context of a real teammate—and that context is what makes them so powerful.

Automation runs tasks. Karbon AI agents move the work forward.

A role-based intelligence layer

Each AI Agent is designed around how firms actually work.

We classify them into two groups:

1. Service Delivery Agents that perform the work (bookkeeping, payroll, tax).

2. Service Management Agents that run the business behind the work (billing, triage, onboarding).

Together, they form a connected ecosystem of AI teammates that make Karbon not just the operating system for accounting firms, but their intelligence layer.

Productivity fueled by context

Traditional automation executes instructions. Karbon AI Agents act with understanding. They know what’s been done, what’s next, and what’s blocking progress across email, work, and client tasks.

For example, you can ask a Bookkeeper Agent: “What’s holding up Smith & Co’s month-end close?”

It can then review open tasks, unread emails, and missing client documents to deliver an actionable summary.

This level of context awareness transforms efficiency into something deeper: coordinated, intelligent motion across the firm.

The AI Practice Manager agent in Karbon providing capacity and pricing suggestions.

Trust and control at the core

Karbon AI Agents are built for a profession that runs on precision and accountability. Every agent action is visible, auditable, and configurable through the AI Agent Management System.

Through the AI Agent Management System, firms can:

• Enable or disable specific agents and capabilities.

• Control what data each agent can access.

• Review a complete audit trail of every agent decision.

Karbon customers can approve, edit, or reject agent outputs, which works to train them over time. This human-in-control approach ensures quality while letting firms scale automation safely and confidently.

Karbon Agents have trust and control at the core.

The road ahead

We are currently showcasing AI Agent capabilities in early beta with select firms. In 2026, we plan to launch our first wave of agents for bookkeeper and fractional CFO roles, followed by email triage, billing and client onboarding, all administered through the AI Agent Management System.

Also in 2026, Ask Karbon will unify everything through natural language. Ask Karbon is an always-available conversational interface that understands your intent and orchestrates the right agent to take action. I’ll share more about this exciting feature soon!

Why it matters

Almost every accounting firm faces the same challenge: how to sustainably grow and deliver more value to their clients.

Karbon AI Agents give firm leaders the leverage they need to achieve their greatest ambitions. 

This isn’t about replacing people (accountants aren’t replaceable). It’s about amplifying them. It’s about freeing accountants to spend time on insight, not inputs.

Karbon AI Agents make that shift real—moving accounting profession technology from managing work to activating it.