Study: AI Assistants Recommend CPA Firms Without Checking Who Actually Does the Work

APEX, N.C., Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- AI assistants asked to recommend a CPA firm for a federally required audit recommended firms that do the most of that work the least and rarely consulted the public record of who performs it, according to a study published today by AIWorthy, an independent researcher.

The study, "Three Doors and a Brick Wall: How AI Assistants Choose CPA Firms," asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode ten questions phrased as a first-time buyer would, five times each, on August 11 and September 28, 2026. It checked the answers against the ten Research Triangle CPA firms the Federal Audit Clearinghouse shows performing Single Audits, the audit required of any organization spending $1,000,000 or more in federal funds in a year.

Among the findings:

• The firms doing most of this work were recommended the least. The four busiest firms, with 45 of the panel's 75 federal engagements, were recommended 24 times in 250 August answers; the six smallest, with 30, were recommended 184 times. Three firms, including the busiest, were never recommended or cited on either date.
  
  
• The recommended firms had three things in common: a page on their own site that names the Triangle, describes the buyer's kind of organization at length, and was updated recently. Firms never recommended lacked at least one; the busiest lacked all three.
  
  
• The public record was almost never read. The two assistants that cite sources cited 2,725 pages. The Federal Audit Clearinghouse, which names every Single Audit auditor, was cited four times; the state licensing board, never.
  
  
• Buyers were sent to names that no longer exist. In 79 August and 85 September answers, a firm was recommended under a name it no longer uses; one name was retired in April 2024.
  
  
• The second most-recommended firm has a website under construction. Recommended 78 times, its site showed only a maintenance page.

"Firms are being asked to spend on AI visibility with no independent read of what the assistants do when buyers ask," said Heather Harreld, founder of AIWorthy. "What a firm learns is not a score but a route: whether it was read, remembered or found through someone else, and what the machine saw when it looked. That is what a B2B firm needs before it spends a dollar."

The panel, questions and scoring were frozen with cryptographic hashes before any firm was contacted, and every measured firm received its record with a right of reply. No firm is named. Full study, visual summary, article and case files: https://aiworthy.ai/research/ai-visibility-cpa-firms-single-audit.

About AIWorthy

AIWorthy independently measures how AI platforms find, describe and recommend companies, checked against the public record. It sells no placement, rankings, optimization or content; measured firms may purchase their own record, which does not change what is published.

Media contact

Heather Harreld, founder, AIWorthy
[email protected] • 919-601-3702

SOURCE AIWorthy