2026 has begun with a cold snap. And it’s turned out not to be a short, sharp couple of days of frosty mornings but a couple of weeks of temperatures falling down to -5 or below in certain parts of the UK.

We believe it’s going to feel like this for many accounting firms this year. As the lack of ability to focus on necessary changes means that the competition will be going in hard to steal their lunch!

Accounting firms have to some extent been fortunate in the past – there has been a high level of client loyalty and client loss was usually only as a result of significant client service issues (and therefore ‘value’ for fee). There has been a increase in intensity in the ‘battle for clients’ but the market has been generally less competitive than other sectors.

But all that is about to change….

With private equity doubling down on sensible KPIs for partners and senior staff members, everybody is feeling the need to “hit their numbers“

Which means they’re coming after your clients. Either to drive turnover and undercut you, or to provide demonstrably better service because they believe they’re better funded.

Either way, it’s going to make 2026 a year when every single firm is needing to compete – and not only be able to win new work and gain extension sales from existing clients but also to strengthen their game when it comes to a defensive approach to keeping clients.

The shape of things to come 

Our model of the shape of the future firm clearly shows that our trusty faithful pyramid is under intense pressure. The feeling is that this will be replaced by (or evolve into) more of a diamond, with less traditional junior roles and the everyday work being driven through software and AI agents.

If it sounds like fantasy, then we can promise you that’s far from the truth. Firms of every size (and interestingly it’s often the smaller firms who are fastest to latch on to time saving software that can support their business more effectively) our exploring, investing and making the most of the latest software and AI adoption and analysing their model. Doing different!

It also means the way you lead, develop and build career paths for people must change, because some of those being recruited at the base of your structure will not be accountants… But programmers… Or system architects… Developers… Or simply people who understand how to run AI to get the job done. Either way they won’t be following a traditional career path and anyone who wants to attract them must fully appreciate this.

On the positive side, a new model can help to retain and utilise talent, allowing people to find and create ‘new’ business critical roles based on their strengths – instead of following the traditional narrow career path towards partner.

What can you do?

Everyone is thinking about this.

Everyone’s been talking about it for the whole of 2025.

So you need to ACT NOW and build this into your strategic plan at the very least have a conversation with us and make sure you can answer the tough questions.