how are you pricing AI-assisted services? my clients expect it to be cheaper
real question for the community: how are you handling pricing when you use AI in your workflow?
i've been using AI for about 6 months and it's genuinely made me faster. a tax return that used to take 4 hours takes 2.5 now. great for my productivity.
but my clients are starting to notice. two of them this month said some version of "if AI is doing the work, shouldn't it cost less?"
how do you handle this? do you: a) lower prices (pass the efficiency to the client) b) keep prices the same (you're paying for the RESULT not the hours) c) actually charge MORE (because the AI-augmented output is higher quality)
genuinely torn on this. i value-price most engagements but the clients who know i use AI feel like they should get a discount.
4 replies
the clients who say "AI is doing the work" fundamentally misunderstand what we do. the AI isn't doing the work. the AI is doing the MECHANICAL part of the work.
the judgment — which elections to make, how to structure the entity, what positions to take, how aggressive to be — that's all me. and that judgment is informed by 15 years of experience that AI doesn't have.
my response to clients: "I use AI the same way a surgeon uses a robot. the robot makes the incision more precise. but you're still paying for the surgeon's judgment, not the robot's arm."
shuts the conversation down pretty fast.
option B, every time. your clients are paying for a correct tax return that minimizes their liability and keeps them compliant. they don't care (and shouldn't care) whether you used a calculator, Excel, AI, or a ouija board to get there.
the analogy i use: when lawyers started using Westlaw instead of manually searching case law, did legal fees go down? no. the work product got better and faster, and the savings went to the firm.
if anything, AI lets you catch things you would've missed. that's MORE valuable, not less.
counterpoint from a smaller practice: i DID lower my prices for bookkeeping specifically.
AI cut my monthly bookkeeping time by roughly 40%. i passed half of that saving to the client and kept half. clients are happy, i'm making more per hour than before, and i've been able to take on 3 additional clients with the freed-up capacity.
for tax prep and advisory: prices stayed the same or went up. different value proposition.
i think the answer depends on the service. commoditized work (bookkeeping, data entry, reconciliation) → share the savings. judgment work (tax planning, advisory, complex returns) → keep or increase.
i'm actually in camp C for some engagements. here's why:
my AI-assisted review process now includes:
- primary return preparation (me + AI)
- AI-powered second review (I run the return through a separate prompt that tries to find errors)
- cross-reference check against prior year
- citation verification for every tax position
the output is objectively better than what i produced before AI. more positions checked, more citations verified, fewer errors. that's worth more, not less.
i frame it as "technology-enhanced preparation" in my engagement letter. clients who push back on price usually stop when i explain the additional verification layers.
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