AI is affecting metro Atlanta’s workforce, from white collar to hands-on jobs
As companies weigh how to use artificial intelligence for more tasks, one Atlanta CEO says a willingness to use the technology is becoming a job requirement.
“If we had somebody that we hired and they said, ‘I don’t want to use AI,’ I think they would be behind — because it is a tool that can help you do your job more effectively and efficiently,” said Jeff Call, CEO and managing director of Atlanta accounting firm Bennett Thrasher. “And so our expectation is that all of our team members will understand the technology, know how to use it.”
A KPMG survey of American workers conducted last June and July found 87% say they use AI at least weekly, and over half said they use it daily. At the same time, 52% of workers expressed concern that AI could eventually replace their jobs.
A Challenger, Gray & Christmas report on job cuts said AI was responsible for more than 54,000 announced layoffs in 2025. Companies including Salesforce and CrowdStrike have cited AI as a factor for job cuts.
Some business leaders are telling people: Your job won’t be replaced by AI, but it could be replaced by somebody who knows how to use AI, Call said.
“We want to make sure that the people that we’re hiring have those technology skills, that they are willing to adopt the tools that are necessary,” Call said.
Transformation at ‘lightning speed’
A 2025 study by researchers from Brigham Young University and the University of Georgia found there are multiple reasons people cite for not using generative AI, “despite having the opportunity to do so.”
They includes concerns about the quality of the output and the risks involved, as well as ethical concerns.
The study also found that there’s a difference “from person to person in terms of their need for human connection. And those that have that high need for human connection are far less likely to use generative AI,” said Benjamin Richardson, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia who co-authored the study.
Richardson said he personally thinks that AI is a new tool, “kind of like Google was back in the day. … Your professor or someone would say, ‘No, just look it up in an encyclopedia the right way.’”
He said Google’s sources “are potentially more suspect, but there’s also richer information.”
“I think AI is kind of the same way, where you do have to use it, but you also need to understand the risks and benefits and use them appropriately,” Richardson said. “Not all uses are appropriate, and also how people perceive those uses … varies from person to person based on their values, life experiences” and other factors.
But ready or not, AI is already being used in offices and job sites all over.
It’s “transforming the workplace at lightning speed,” said Alex Alonso, chief data and insights officer of Society for Human Resource Management, during a SHRM podcast in December.
And there are risks.
“The new word of the year is work slop,” said SHRM executive-in-residence Nichol Bradford during the podcast. “Because now that many people have access to AI, the volume of what’s being circulated inside of organizations like new proposals, new initiatives, etc. — it’s higher than it’s ever been.”
AI tools in the office
Not long ago, early-career employees at Bennett Thrasher “would spend a lot of their time doing more monotonous tasks,” crunching numbers, Call said.
Now, “a lot of the AI and automation technologies can help with getting a lot of that done to a point where they only have to review it, make sure it’s accurate,” he said.
Still, he said, “my belief is AI is just a tool. It’s going to give you maybe a good first draft of something. But you still need somebody to understand the work, to be able to review it.”
Senior professionals and partners at the firm are also expected to try to use AI tools “as best as possible,” he said.
The firm uses generative AI tax research tool Blue J to draft memos to clients, for example.
“We may go in and modify a few things,” Call said. But in the past, a memo that might have taken 10 hours to prepare could perhaps be done in an hour with the help of generative AI, he said.
More broadly, Bennett Thrasher is using AI tools like Microsoft Copilot “pretty extensively across the firm,” along with AI tools built into other software commonly used in the accounting industry.
AI built into software for tasks like hourly billing is also a time saver, Call said. “It will help you enter your time, like, in seconds. Instead of you having to track it, it’s tracking it based on all the different tools you’re using throughout the day and what clients are involved, etc.”
AI as ‘eyes and ears’
It’s not just white-collar work that is being transformed by AI.
The technology is also increasingly being used to reduce the need for some types of hands-on staff like security guards.
At EyeQ Monitoring’s security operations center in the Cumberland area of Cobb County, employees monitor a bank of screens showing security camera feeds from EyeQ clients’ business locations.
EyeQ has about 30,000 cameras installed at clients’ locations including office buildings, apartment buildings and car dealerships across the country, to provide round-the-clock monitoring.
That reduces the need for security guards at multiple locations or for constant patrols by staff, said EyeQ CEO Markus Scott. “We can be a force multiplier,” he said, cutting clients’ costs for security guards by as much as 75%.
“Rather than having a person at the front desk and two people walking around your campus at all times,” with cameras across the site, “we can now have more eyes and ears on your property, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, versus just periodically when those two or three people were hopefully walking by that area,” Scott said.
The digital cameras use software with artificial intelligence designed to detect unusual behavior — such as someone on a car dealership lot in the middle of the night who might be trying to break in or steal catalytic converters — which triggers an alarm prompting an EyeQ agent to watch the footage and respond as needed. Having that layer of review can also reduce the number of false alarms to police, Scott said.
In some cases, “rather than putting a human on some of these properties, we can leverage analytics to identify threat behaviors and then respond to it,” Scott said. That could be through a loudspeaker at the location, and it could mean escalating it to police.
In other cases, there’s still value to the “concierge” role of someone at a security desk of a high-rise building greeting and welcoming people to the property.
So, “AI is going to be a little bit limited at least today, culturally,” Scott. “That human interaction is wonderful.”
And Scott acknowledged there’s a “trade-off of privacy and convenience that comes with AI and surveillance.” But he said he believes it will “drive a lot of value” in the future.
The video data also presents opportunities for another segment of EyeQ’s business: using AI to track wait times in service lanes at dealerships to identify areas to improve the customer experience, or to inspect vehicles for damage.
Hiring outlook
Among companies taking advantage of AI, some like Bennett Thrasher and EyeQ Monitoring continue to hire and expand.
Scott said EyeQ is growing rapidly, so “we are looking for more great talent across the country, especially here in Atlanta,” he said.
That includes a need for people to work in security operations as well as “more talented folks that are really interested in building cool AI applications to serve the world.”
At Bennett Thrasher, the accounting firm is still hiring “quite a few people,” Call said, with about 80 hires over the last year. “We haven’t reduced our hiring in any substantial way.”
“But I think over time, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a need for a few less people,” Call said. “We are seeing some ability to get work done, maybe a little bit more effectively and efficiently.”
About the Author
As business team lead, Kelly Yamanouchi edits and writes business stories. She graduated from Harvard and has a master's degree from Northwestern.
