Blog

30+ Best AI Tools & Resources of 2026

Learn which AI tools accounting and SMB professionals are using to help save time (and earn more money) in 2026.

minute read

By

Last Updated May 21, 2026

Category Automation & AI

Image of coworkers in front of a computer screen

Share

30+ Best AI Tools & Resources of 2026

With so many new AI tools on the market, it’s tough to figure out exactly which ones are worth the hype. In this post, we’ve done the hard work for you. Click below to jump to the top AI tools in accounting, tax, marketing, sales, and more.

Table of Contents

AI Influencers in Accounting, Tax, Business & Technology

Follow these influencers for the latest developments in AI technology, its use cases across various industries, and how it’s reshaping business for the better.

Influencer Expertise Where to Find Them…
Roman Kepczyk AI in accounting, tax, and finance LinkedIn, CPAPA, Rightworks (webinars and blogs)
TJ Lewis AI in accounting, tax, and finance LinkedIn, Woodard
Bernard Marr AI, business, and technology trends LinkedIn, Forbes, Personal blog
Shelly Palmer AI and digital transformation LinkedIn, Personal blog
Jason Staats AI in accounting and finance LinkedIn, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
John Higgins AI in business and education LinkedIn
Paul Roetzer AI in business and marketing LinkedIn, X, Marketing AI Institute
Allie K. Miller AI and technology in business LinkedIn, X, LinkTree
Ethan Mollick AI, innovation, and startups LinkedIn, X, Substack

Have someone to add to the list? Message us on LinkedIn.

Best AI Courses for Accounting & SMB Professionals

Whether you’re brand new to AI or looking to build on the basics, the right course can help you apply these tools where they matter most: your workflow. Below are the strongest free and paid options, prioritized for accounting professionals and small business owners.

Course Cost Best For What to Know
Google: Make AI Work for You Free Small business owners who want practical wins fast Covers marketing, operations, finances, and workflow automation using Gemini, NotebookLM, and Google Vids. Free access to the Google AI Professional Certificate available for eligible US SMBs.
DeepLearning.AI: AI for Everyone Free Anyone who wants a non-technical foundation before applying AI to accounting or business tasks A widely used beginner-friendly overview. A solid starting point before diving into profession-specific tools.
FreeAcademy.ai: AI for Finance & Accounting Free Accountants, auditors, and finance professionals who want a course built around their work Covers accounting, auditing, forecasting, reconciliation, and fraud detection. Includes a free certificate.
Becker: AI for Accounting and Auditing Certificate Paid Accountants who want structured, profession-specific training with CPE credit Four on-demand courses covering practical AI use in accounting workflows, Copilot, prompting, and Excel AI. Includes 9 NASBA-approved CPE credits.
AICPA/CIMA: AI Accelerator Skills Program Paid Finance leaders and CPAs seeking a formal professional-development path Globally offered, NASBA-accredited program. Can earn up to 42 CPE credits.
Coursera: AI Applications in Accounting and Finance Paid Accounting professionals who want an applied, academic-style course Covers machine learning, real-world financial documents, images, and emerging technologies.

Best AI Tools for Accounting & SMB Professionals

AI + Accounting and Tax

Not only can AI gather and organize tax documents from multiple sources, but it can also scan tax returns for errors or inconsistencies, then flag them for further review. Check out a few of our favorites:

AI Tool Key Features Best For
Spark AI
  • Secure, accounting-native AI assistant that helps firms and finance teams work faster across client communication, document analysis, and data insights without compromising sensitive data.
  • Included in OneSpace at no additional cost or risk.
 Accounting professionals who need to move fast and keep client data safe.
Vic.ai
  • Automates accounts payable.
  • Uses machine learning for invoice processing.
  • Provides real-time financial insights.
 Streamlining accounts payable processes.
SmartVault Accounting Pro
  • Request client source documents and send reminders to keep timelines on track.
  • Workflows and templates allow documents to be uploaded and automatically filed in their proper location.
 Tax preparers looking to streamline client workflows.
1040SCAN
  • Automatically scan, organize, and assemble tax workpapers. No data entry required.
 Tax preparers looking to streamline client document management (and who hate data entry).

Learn more about how AI is reshaping the tax profession.

AI + Client Management

Accountants spend an average of about five hours a week in staff meetings. AI meeting tools can record and transcribe meetings, then create summaries and action items, so that time goes further.

AI Tool Key Features Best For
OtterPilot
  • Connect OtterPilot to your Google or Outlook calendar.
  • Auto-join Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet to take and share meeting notes, including slides being presented.
  • Receive an automated meeting note summary with action items and hyperlinks.
 Taking team and client meeting notes.
Silverfin Assistant by Visma
  • Analyzes client files.
  • Flags unusual balances, missing transactions, and outliers, then suggests fixes.
 Client file and data analysis.

Spark AI built for accounting. Not the general public. Learn more.

AI + Bookkeeping

For bookkeepers looking to save time on data processing or small businesses seeking automated bookkeeping, these are the top solutions:

AI Tool Key Features Best For
Dext Prepare
  • Collects, extracts, and processes receipts and invoices.
  • Integrates with accounting software.
 Businesses seeking efficient expense management and bookkeeping.
Docyt
  • Categorize transactions in real time.
  • Compare transactions to bank feed information for continuous reconciliation.
 Bookkeepers looking for real-time transaction reconciliation.
Nanonets
  • Automatically extract data from bank statements, invoices, and receipts using AI and optical character recognition (OCR).
  • Reconcile transactions across different systems.
 Finance and accounting professionals looking to simplify reconciliation and improve financial accuracy.

AI + Marketing

AI marketing tools help craft strategies, create and distribute content, interpret campaign results, and more.

AI Tool Key Features Best For
Jasper
  • Generates content in your brand’s voice using your business’s information.
  • Helps generate text, images, and strategy.
 Small businesses to enterprises looking to strengthen their marketing strategy.
StoryChief
  • An AI-powered content marketing platform that streamlines content creation and distribution.
 Marketing agencies and teams looking to craft, collaborate, and distribute content more effectively.
Microsoft Copilot
  • Integrates Microsoft apps to help improve writing, interpret data, and find answers fast.
 Microsoft users.

AI + Writing and Research

Use these to make researching topics and writing first drafts easier:

AI Tool Key Features Best For
Perplexity
  • Research topics in depth, with easy access to source material.
  • Generate content based on “Focus” (academic, writing, math, video, and social).
 Anyone looking to cut down the time it takes to research a topic.
Claude by Anthropic
  • Writes content at an expert level in the style and tone of your brand or subject matter experts.
 Brainstorming content ideas or speeding up the ghostwriting process.
AI Writing Assistant by Grammarly
  • Rewrites content for tone, length, and formality.
  • Helps generate ideas for emails, reports, articles, and more.
 Anyone who wants to improve their writing.

AI + Email

AI can sort emails into categories based on importance or urgency, and create quick response templates for common client questions so your team spends less time in their inbox.

AI Tool Key Features Best For
Superhuman
  • Split your inbox to organize emails into categories.
  • Snooze emails, set up follow-up reminders, and instantly unsubscribe from spam and unwanted newsletters.
 Google and Microsoft Outlook users.
Texta.ai
  • Sort emails, create templates, and send automated responses.
  • Receive suggestions on what to do next based on email contents.
 Anyone looking to organize their inbox and save time on email.

AI + Graphic Design

For businesses that need high-quality imagery, these AI graphic design tools are leading the pack:

AI Tool Key Features Best For
Adobe Firefly
  • Creates and edits images based on text prompts.
  • Integrates with Photoshop, Adobe Express, Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign, and Substance 3D.
 Adobe CC users.
DALL-E 3 by OpenAI
  • Generates images and visuals from text prompts.
  • Built on ChatGPT.
 Anyone interested in creating images, regardless of artistic background.
Stable Diffusion by Stability AI
  • A tool for generating high-quality images.
  • Ultrafast and ultra-photorealistic.
 Graphic designers familiar with generative AI prompting.

AI + Revenue and Financial Forecasting

Identifying revenue attribution per campaign and projecting financial targets a month, quarter, or year out are often time-consuming processes with little room for error. With AI built into already powerful platforms, those tasks get faster and more accurate.

AI Tool Key Features Best For
Gong.io
  • Forecasts sales revenue with 95% accuracy.
  • Captures customer interactions to inform reps about the deals they should focus on.
 Sales teams.
Moby by Triple Whale
  • Attributes every dollar of revenue directly to an order.
  • Translates the total impact of marketing with pre-built and customizable attribution models.
  • Responds to queries such as “Which of my Meta ads performed the best last quarter?”
 E-commerce businesses and data analysts.

AI + CRM

CRM tools track marketing and sales performance, act as a hub of customer data, and make selling easier. Both HubSpot and Salesforce have integrated AI into their platforms; see how below.

AI Tool Key Features Best For
ChatSpot by HubSpot
  • Connects with the HubSpot CRM to allow for real-time lead summaries.
  • Identifies key selling opportunities.
 HubSpot CRM users.
Agentforce by Salesforce
  • Writes follow-up emails based on CRM information.
  • Creates custom close plans for top opportunities.
 Salesforce users.

Learn More About AI Tools and Tech

Evaluate your daily tasks and ask whether AI could help perform them. Over time, you’ll notice a shift in your workday. Tasks that historically took most of your time will get faster, possibly even eliminated. And suddenly, you’ll have more time for the projects that matter most.

Stay competitive. Stay curious. To learn more about AI, subscribe to our blog.
Spark AI: Built for accounting's finest.

Subscribe to our blog

Get Rightworks articles delivered straight to your inbox.
Privacy(Required)

About the author

Kiara Williams

Kiara Williams

Kiara Williams is the Content Strategy Manager at Rightworks.

She's been writing for the accounting profession for over seven years, developing eBooks, infographics, articles, and whitepapers on topics ranging from cybersecurity to culture. She’s passionate about getting the inside scoop from accounting and tax pros on Reddit and X, is constantly hunting for accounting’s “next big thing,” and prides herself on making data central to every story.

More articles by Kiara Williams

Related Posts

AI Is Here—Is Your WISP Ready?

An AI Usage Policy is now a crucial element of every WISP. Learn how it can help you protect your firm and client data.

The AI Revolution in Tax Practices: What You Need to Know

Explore how AI technologies are transforming tax practices in 2026 and beyond.

AI: Game-changer or job-killer?

Learn why you shouldn’t fear AI at your accounting firm, but instead, embrace its potential to enhance your efficiency, security and client relationships.