The Nexairi Dispatch · Wednesday, June 3, 2026 · Issue #22
Your firm's AI usage rate may be measuring noise
KPMG's 75% usage target got gamed. Here's how to build a metric that means something.
Good morning, friends. KPMG set a 75% AI usage target, and employees hit it by asking the model what the weather was. We dig into what firms should measure instead. Also: three states eased CPA licensing rules, the SEC moved to rescind its 2024 climate disclosures, and a vendor-funded survey says tax firm AI adoption nearly doubled.
📊 AI ADOPTION — Your Firm's AI Adoption Metric Is Probably Broken
What happened: KPMG set a firm-wide target of 75% AI usage. Employees hit it by asking the model what the weather was. Separately, only 42% of organizations say they can audit the AI decisions built into their finance workflows. Those two numbers point to the same gap: clearing your AI targets doesn't mean the work is any better.
Why it matters: Adoption rates measure activity, not results. A high usage number reassures partners that AI is working, even when client work goes untouched. The 42% auditability figure is the sharper problem: if a client or regulator asks which outputs AI touched, most firms can't answer. That's not a technology gap. It's a control gap.
What to watch: The governance question coming next is output logs. Who used the tool matters less than what it produced and whether a human reviewed it before it left the firm.
Outside Nexairi
Tax Firm AI Adoption Nearly Doubled, Survey Says — CPA Practice Advisor
A Blue J and CPA.com survey says AI adoption among tax firms nearly doubled year over year. Worth reading with the source in mind — Blue J sells AI research tools to the same firms it surveyed.
AI Models More Vulnerable to Prompt Attacks Than Vendors Admit — CFO Dive
Cisco research found frontier AI models are more exposed to multi-turn prompt attacks than vendors acknowledge. Finance teams using AI on client data should know: attacks that spread across multiple turns bypass the defenses vendors typically test for.
Gartner: Finance AI Projects Succeed Only About Half the Time — CFO Dive
Gartner says finance AI projects succeed only about half the time, with top teams using four specific practices to beat those odds. If you're planning a rollout, the 50% base rate is worth knowing going in.
Three More States Ease the Path to CPA Licensure — CFO Dive
Vermont, Missouri and Louisiana passed bills reducing the educational barriers to CPA licensing. The 150-hour rule has kept qualified candidates out for years — these three states are treating it as a pipeline problem, not a quality safeguard.
SEC Moves to Rescind Its 2024 Climate Disclosure Rules — Journal of Accountancy
The SEC formally proposed rescinding its 2024 climate disclosure rules, which required public companies to report material climate risks in filings. CPAs advising public companies should flag the comment period — it's open now.
Trump Signs a Scaled-Back AI Executive Order — Politico
The White House signed a revised AI executive order after weeks of rewrites. It's narrower than early drafts, focused on innovation and national security — the broader oversight frameworks didn't survive.
Tool Worth Knowing: Gusto Cofounder (gusto.com)
Gusto launched Gusto Cofounder, an AI teammate inside its payroll platform that answers payroll questions, sends compliance nudges and handles routine tasks for small business owners. If your small business clients are already on Gusto, they'll see it soon. Worth knowing what it does before they ask.
Deeper Read
How small businesses can leverage AI — MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review maps where small business AI holds up and where it doesn't. Good for CPAs advising owner-operated clients on what to hand off and what to keep checking.
Beyond LLMs: Why Scalable Enterprise AI Adoption Depends on Agent Logic — HuggingFace / IBM Research
IBM Research argues raw model capability isn't the bottleneck for enterprise AI adoption — workflow orchestration and agent logic are. Worth reading for any firm trying to get AI past the prompt-and-paste stage.
Quick Hits
- Microsoft Scout autonomous AI agent
- OpenAI Codex now on AWS for enterprises
- OpenAI Codex expanding to every knowledge work role
- Travelers deploys AI-powered claims with OpenAI
- NVIDIA Cosmos 3 open omni-model for physical AI
- IRS proposes estate tax closing letter fee increase
- IRS eases sovereign wealth fund tax rules
- Crete rebrands as Current with AI-first focus
- Coca-Cola CFO on using AI to sharpen marketing spend
- Nexairi: Crypto 1099 mismatches — fix before filing season