Firm leaders are spending months debating which AI tools to adopt while their teams are burning out from the debate itself. The thing AI is supposed to solve—overwhelm—is exactly what the conversation around AI is creating.
Right now, the anxiety about AI is costing firms more than inaction on AI itself. And it’s showing up in ways that have nothing to do with technology.
What Happens When You Lead from Fear
During my years as a Partner and later in C-suite roles, I watched firms handle technology changes in wildly different ways. Firms that made fear-based decisions created more problems than the technology ever could have. They rushed implementations to “catch up” without understanding what they were implementing. They stopped investing in current improvements because “AI might make this obsolete soon.” They made no decision at all and fell behind on tools that would have helped them.
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Meanwhile, their teams sensed the uncertainty and started wondering what it meant for their own careers. Client service suffered because partners were distracted by what might happen instead of focused on what was actually happening.
The Real Problem
Mike Cieri, EVP of Software at BILL, told me something that explains why some firms are handling this well and others aren’t: “People tend to fear things they don’t understand.”
That sounds obvious. But it’s the actual issue.
Two firms, similar size, similar clients, similar challenges. One is testing AI thoughtfully. The other is either rushing into implementations they don’t understand or avoiding the conversation entirely.
The difference isn’t technical sophistication. One firm gave itself permission to learn before committing.
This connects directly to what I teach about sustainable success through the B³ Method. You can’t make good decisions from a state of chronic anxiety. The quality of your decisions depends on the quality of your mental state when you make them.
When you’re operating from fear, you’re in fight-or-flight mode. Your brain is optimized for immediate threat response, not strategic thinking. That’s fine when you need to react quickly to genuine danger. But AI adoption isn’t a genuine danger—it’s a multi-year strategic decision that requires calm, clear thinking.
The Gap Between “Important” and “Understood”
Firms are being told AI is critical. They’re not being given time to understand what that means.
I’ve watched this pattern with cloud accounting, advisory services, remote work. The firms that struggled weren’t slow adopters. They never took time to understand what they were implementing before committing resources and disrupting workflows.
The gap between “I know AI matters” and “I understand what AI actually does” is where anxiety grows. And that gap is widening because of the volume of conflicting information.
Every conference has a different vendor with a different pitch. Every peer group conversation surfaces conflicting advice. Every article promises revolutionary change or warns about being left behind. The sheer volume of information—most of it contradictory—is paralyzing.
When I work with executives on transformation, the first thing we do is create space for actual learning. Not reactive consumption of every new piece of information. Deliberate, focused learning with clear boundaries.
What Learning Actually Looks Like
No one can keep up with AI news, but you can reduce the noise.
Protect learning time, but make it realistic.
Fifteen minutes daily. Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 8:45-9:00am. On the calendar. Treat it like a client meeting you can’t cancel.
During that time, you’re not solving anything. You’re not making decisions. You’re learning. The pressure to have answers comes off.
Choose one or two sources and ignore everything else.
The volume of AI content is part of what’s creating anxiety. Pick a podcast you trust or a course that’s comprehensive. Commit to it for a month. Unsubscribe from the rest.
This feels counterintuitive. How can you stay current if you’re ignoring most information? But consuming everything means retaining nothing. Your brain can’t process that volume of input while also running a firm.
As Cieri noted when we discussed adoption strategies, the key is “not getting too behind the ball, but taking your time with it and making sure it checks the good judgment boxes in your head as a firm leader.”
Separate learning mode from decision mode.
When you’re in learning mode, you gather information. When you’re in decision mode, you draw on what you’ve learned. Mixing them creates the feeling of being overwhelmed by options you’re not ready to evaluate.
This is basic mindfulness practice applied to technology adoption. Be present with learning when you’re learning. Be present with deciding when you’re deciding. Don’t try to do both simultaneously.
The Training Fear Partners Won’t Name
One anxiety surfaces repeatedly in my conversations with managing partners: “If AI does the transaction coding, how do new staff learn the fundamentals?”
This fear is real. The traditional two-year path of data entry before strategic work may not exist in the same form.
In reality, the managing partners are anxious about this. Entry-level staff aren’t.
The shift means associates can move into insight generation and strategic guidance faster. That skill development starts showing up earlier in their careers instead of after two years of repetitive work.
This is a training redesign challenge, not an AI problem. Fortunately, it’s solvable. But only if partners can get out of fight-or-flight mode long enough to think strategically about how entry-level development could evolve.
Firms addressing this now (calmly, deliberately) will have an advantage in recruiting. Firms frozen by fear will fall behind on both technology and talent.
Creating Space for Better Decisions
The work I do through The B³ Method centers on sustainable success: achieving business results without burning people out. That requires making decisions from a place of clarity rather than chronic stress.
The same framework applies to AI adoption.
Acknowledge the fear without letting it drive your choices.
Uncertainty about AI is reasonable. Making multi-year technology investments while in that state of uncertainty isn’t. Notice the anxiety. Don’t act from it.
Test in ways that build confidence without risking client work.
Start with internal tools that won’t impact clients if they don’t work out. Note-taking apps. Internal communication tools. Learn how AI actually behaves before deploying it in client-facing workflows.
Focus only on what you control.
You can’t control how fast the technology evolves or what your competitors are doing. You can control whether your team has protected time to learn. Whether you test before you scale. Whether you make decisions from clarity or from pressure to keep up.
This isn’t about moving slowly. It’s about moving deliberately. There’s a difference.
What actually matters
AI will continue evolving whether you’re ready or not. Your team’s well-being won’t wait for you to figure it out.
The firms I work with that handle transformation well don’t eliminate fear. They don’t let fear make their decisions. They create space to learn, test, and adapt.
When partners are operating from chronic anxiety about AI, that stress cascades through the entire firm. Staff sense it. Clients sense it. The work suffers.
If you’re overwhelmed by AI, don’t try working harder to consume more information or implement faster. Take a beat. Create actual space for deliberate learning. Make decisions from understanding, not from anxiety.
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Amy Vetter, CPA, CGMA, is the CEO of The B³ Method (Business + Balance = Bliss) Institute, where she empowers accounting professionals to transform their firms through connected leadership and client advisory excellence. With over 25 years of experience, including executive roles at global technology companies, Amy blends deep industry knowledge with mindfulness principles to help practitioners create sustainable success. Her Cherished Advisory Services programs guide firms in developing high-value client relationships that drive growth and profitability. Amy is a best-selling author, sought-after keynote speaker, and host of the Breaking Beliefs podcast. She has been repeatedly recognized as one of the “Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting” and a “Top 100 Most Influential Person in Accounting” by industry publications.
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