Across the published 2026 small-bookkeeping AI corpus (Xero OS, Intuit Assist, Canopy AI Notetaker, Digits MCP Server, with CPA Practice Advisor as the trade-press source), AI now reliably handles five recurring grind workflows at 1-to-5-person firm scale (bank-feed categorisation, receipt OCR, recurring journal posting, sales-tax reconciliation, AR ageing emails), but the judgement-call workflows (period close, advisory conversations, audit defence) remain human-led.

Path B operator case-study piece. Corpus is platform-led because individual small-firm cases are rarely published. Defensible 5-person firm stack: one books platform (Xero OS or QuickBooks+Intuit Assist) + one practice management with AI capture (Canopy) + one MCP-style integration layer (Digits MCP). Cost in low-hundreds per seat per month range. Labour saving editorially framed as 6-12 hrs/week per bookkeeper on the recurring grind.