Artificial Intelligence in the Social Media Strategies of UK Accounting Firms: An Evidence Synthesis and Protocol for a 21-Firm Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

Accounting firms in the United Kingdom are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) across audit, tax, reporting and advisory work, yet little is known about how they use AI in social media, particularly on LinkedIn, to generate content, analyse engagement, schedule posts, personalise messages and generate leads. This article makes two contributions. First, it reports a structured synthesis of the most recent evidence from the Chartered Accountants Worldwide and ICAEW-linked survey, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Office for National Statistics, US industry research and the peer-reviewed literature, graded for evidential quality. Second, it presents a protocol for a convergent mixed-methods study of 21 UK accounting firms. The synthesis shows rapid but uneven adoption: about 35% of UK businesses with ten or more employees used AI in June 2026; 85% of surveyed chartered accountants were at least fairly willing to use it; larger organisations used AI for analysis and reporting more than sole practitioners and small and medium practices; yet 66% of respondents had received no employer AI training, and fewer than a third of AI-using organisations had policies on transparency, explainability or bias. No study located measures AI use in the social media strategy of accounting firms. The protocol specifies the sampling, instruments, analysis and ethics needed to close that gap. Implications for firms are offered as testable hypotheses: begin with narrow, governed applications, keep a named professional accountable for published content, and measure net rather than gross benefit.