AI Is Changing Who Builds Wealth
Originally published on September 17, 2026
“It’s giving the smaller teams access to bigger capabilities that stretch more like larger organizations.”
Everyone is talking about how AI will change jobs, but this episode of Your CPA’s Take on Real Estate takes a different angle: how AI is changing who builds wealth.
James Moore CPA Kyle Paxton joins host Faith to unpack why this shift matters, which industries stand to benefit most, and how business owners should be thinking about AI right now. This is part one of a two part conversation, covering everything from the economics of business ownership to the biggest misconceptions owners have about AI and financial success.
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Full Transcript
[00:02] Faith: Hi everyone and welcome. I am here with Kyle Paxton. Hi Kyle, how are you?
[00:02] Kyle Paxton: Hello. I’m doing well, thanks. Always a pleasure.
[00:57] Faith: So, today we’re talking about how AI is changing wealth creation faster than most people realize.
[01:20] Faith: Everyone is talking about AI’s impact on jobs, but why do you think the bigger story is its impact on wealth creation?
[01:20] Kyle Paxton: I really like this topic because I do feel like the last couple years so much focus has been on the impact to jobs. And so really what we’re seeing as this has panned out, I feel like if you’re not talking about AI every day right now, you need to be, because everybody else is. There’s going to be a split there if you don’t already see that. Really where this gets to from wealth creation is historically if you want to build a meaningful business, a lot of infrastructure is needed. Sometimes I work with a lot of people in a family office setting that are small teams with a couple key employees who are doing everything. That’s a huge load on those people. There’s no quality of life sometimes. But you need the people, the systems, capital, the right software. So what I’m seeing AI doing in that space is just compressing that friction. It’s giving the smaller teams access to bigger capabilities that stretch more like larger organizations. And this wealth creation is about leverage to some degree, and my nine to five job as a CPA keeps me pretty busy, so it becomes how do I make those hours more efficient, and then in other lines of business, if I own real estate, if I have other sources of income that don’t have my focus all the time, how can I leverage AI to either automate some of my core business so I have time for the other stuff, or the other way around, where I’m automating a lot of the tasks with those other income streams. So it really just becomes the economics and the increased margins of better leverage of your time. We’re seeing in a lot of ways it’s not necessarily saving you money, because a lot of AI tools out there are extremely expensive. But it becomes more on how can I leverage my time so I can use it to its highest and best use, and with that, how can I either obtain other sources of income streams to better optimize my wealth.
[04:03] Faith: Yes, absolutely. How is AI changing the economics of business ownership, and what opportunities does that create for entrepreneurs?
[04:03] Kyle Paxton: It’s a good question. I think there is overlap here on what we were just talking about, but it is becoming more of, it lowers the cost of execution. And I’m using cost loosely there because not necessarily money, but more so again talking about the time and flexibility to automate a lot of tasks that aren’t taking that business owner’s highest and best use of their time. That small business is able to produce content, analyze customer trends, build dashboards, draft process memos, summarize contracts so much faster than a few years ago. And we’re talking about a spread game here in margins. So it’s reducing the administrative drag. It’s making expertise more accessible, like I was talking about with those smaller teams. I don’t mean AI replaces advisors, I’m a business advisor myself, that’s dangerous territory. But it gets you to that first draft, and gets you able to better interpret. It helps me explain complex accounting concepts in an easier manner with my clients. And then the biggest opportunity here is just improving speed. We’ve talked a lot before about the accessibility of data and the ability to deploy your data in a way that can better your team. There’s no better time in history than right now for getting real-time data and utilizing it. So the catch is, if we’re starting with weak margins, we have messy data, and our cash flow modeling is off and behind, AI is not magically solving that. You still need the business discipline we’ve seen successful historically. It’s just all of that is so much more accessible these days.
[06:14] Faith: Which industries do you believe are best positioned to benefit from AI over the next decade and why?
[06:14] Kyle Paxton: I don’t think you can just say one. We can focus on a few here. Most of my time lives in the real estate space, and this is really just cleaning up. Real estate and construction are both pretty manual industries, especially when we’re talking about the accounting and operations on it. So when we’re talking about underwriting, acquiring lease data, property level cash flows, construction budgets, change orders, historically these are all very manual tasks. All of that can be distilled now into better dashboards and forecasting and automate a lot of data. So for me, the real estate and construction is really just leveraging, giving you access to a greater database faster. Professional services, I live in the accounting world, this is eliminating a lot of noise. So you bring in also attorneys, consultants, any kind of broad financial advisory, but while compliance work is still a very important piece of my role here, I do a lot of tax returns, my value proposition moves more towards the business advisory. So a lot of the manual work CPA firms can be automated, and it allows us to free up more of our time to be those holistic business advisors, help interpret the data, pull from other areas of expertise across our client base and implement it. I think another one in terms of administrative burden I’m thinking about is healthcare. There’s so much of the healthcare sector that is, when you’re talking about the scheduling, documentation, billing, claims, staffing, I don’t have a huge concentration in healthcare personally, but I’ve had a lot of conversations with the healthcare clients I do have on how these tools are streamlining all of those processes. Those are the big ones that come to mind for me, and then I’ll also add manufacturing. Just with the manufacturing logistics, companies have massive amounts of data available to them. Being able to deploy those in the areas of inventory, quality control, route optimization, those are big areas that we see moving the dial here, and gets our manufacturing team here at James Moore quite excited.
[09:00] Faith: Okay. So what separates companies that are using AI to drive profitability from those that are struggling to keep up?
[09:00] Kyle Paxton: Well on that point specifically, I think accountants in general are predisposed to not like change. We get in our comfort box, we do our thing, there’s a reason why I’m an accountant. So I think there’s a big shift worldwide where if you’re not embracing change, you have to right now to keep up. And so I think where I want to take the answer to this question is more along the lines of, I have clients, I have conversations with companies who know they should be using AI. They pick up the data sound bites, they know they should have dashboards, but they’re really struggling to pinpoint where or how to implement. We go to a lot of nationwide conferences around technology. We’re having conversations with other accounting firms constantly where we’re keeping up with this at James Moore. And really what we’re finding is that if we’re talking about an AI software tool specifically, you go out, you find one, it’s the shiniest object out there, you sign a two-year contract, and then tomorrow there’s a shinier object that maybe does something a little bit different. So it’s taking a step back, identifying what are my biggest pain points right now, and how can I use AI to solve those targeted pain points instead of that more general blanket shotgun approach. So I think that’s where I want to take that answer, more so just keeping the strategy really focused around how we’re implementing AI. And then I think the biggest thing apart from that is leadership and culture within your company. Leadership has to be fully on board with this. If we’re going to be implementing AI tools effectively, everybody has to be on the same page on being able to train the teams within your companies and also just championing that change to really get the maximum value out of those tools.
[12:03] Faith: What are some of the biggest misconceptions business owners and investors have about AI and financial success?
[12:24] Kyle Paxton: I think this comes down to, I think there’s some notion, and I kind of fall into this too sometimes with my messaging, that AI is creating financial success or giving you that true streamline. But I think it’s important to reground, and AI is a tool. It’s a lever. It’s one piece of the pie. I think what AI has done in its current state is really bring up the value of judgment and having the human component in AI, having that rock solid gut feel and judgment. Because anybody can leverage AI, generate a report, draft a memo, summarize data, build the model. It’s the interpreting it. It’s what does it mean, and how can I implement it. That’s the piece AI is still not filling, and it may not ever. The other thing here is that AI tools, I made a couple comments about how the costs are high, this is for some of your more flagship enterprise AI tools. AI is really accessible for small businesses. Small to mid-size businesses probably have the most to gain here because they don’t have that existing infrastructure to move faster. They don’t have twelve layers of approval in order to take that next step, they can go from test to implement quick. And then I think one more comment I want to make here is around, while AI is accessible, implementation is tough. And it gets back to the point before on just casting that wide net. The implementation of AI in business has to be very disciplined and targeted in order to get that ROI, and then you should be tracking the ROI immediately from implementation to make sure that the tech spend makes sense. Having an infrastructure in place to do that is big to make sure that it’s a good business move for your company.
[14:54] Faith: So our last question is, if you’re a business owner today, what should you be paying attention to right now to position yourself for long-term growth in an AI driven economy?
[14:54] Kyle Paxton: It’s not a flashy answer, but I think it starts with your data. If it’s not cleaned up at this point, getting that under control is a big deal. And then we talked about identifying the pain points, the bottlenecks, I think that’s important. And then step three is just use something, do something with AI in your business to start if you’re not already, to understand the capabilities and start to understand how it can be utilized. And you know, with AI, it’s a hot topic, data centers, there’s the ethical components that come into play here that are somewhat sensitive. I think the reality is you’ve got to get on board, this is where business is going for better or worse. I can implement the change that I want to see myself, but I only carry so much weight in this world. So at some point, that needs to be shaken off a little bit, and you’ve got to just go for it and get a grasp of what’s going on. And then I also think it’s important, to myself as a CPA, I have a lot of visibility into how my clients are utilizing AI. So bring your advisors in as you’re implementing AI in the system. Bring in the advisors around you who have visibility into other successful business owners. How are other people using this stuff, and how can I use that to solve my pain points. I think it’s huge.
[16:52] Faith: And I think another point too is if you are a business owner and you are looking for a CPA or an advisor, like with you Kyle, you’re always continuing your education in this area, always growing and learning what’s next with AI and how you can implement it. I think that is paramount to any business owner, even if you are hesitant with all of this change, find a CPA who’s continuing his education and is an expert in the field of AI who can help advise you and help you grow your business.
[17:12] Kyle Paxton: We have too many people at James Moore using that precious weekend recharge time to study up on AI. We need it. It’s great, and it’s bettering our company, but that’s what we’re doing with our free time these days.
[18:04] Kyle Paxton: In this era it’s the biggest, the most visibility into this I’ve seen in my career. You have to be able to embrace change. That’s the reality of where we’re at right now. And the people who are embracing change are the ones that are seeing the returns and getting ahead.
[18:24] Faith: All right. Well, it was so good talking to you, Kyle. It’s always good to talk to you. And we’ll be back with part two, I think next week or the week after, but we will talk again soon.
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