The most exciting finding in EY's US AI Pulse Survey is how fast companies can now build custom software. The most overlooked one is what happens after they build it. Among senior leaders whose organizations have deployed or are piloting AI to build in-house software, 94% say AI lets them build faster than traditional development. But 29% also cite the ongoing maintenance and support of that bespoke software as a major barrier, and 24% point to something more alarming: burnout among the existing teams already tasked with managing it.
That's the part of the AI story that doesn't make the headlines. AI has made building cheap and fast. Maintaining, governing, and supporting what gets built is still slow, human, and demanding, and the teams carrying that load are already stretched thin. Every tool AI spins up in an afternoon becomes something a real person has to keep running, keep compliant, and keep accurate for months or years afterward. The build is the easy part. The upkeep is where the strain shows.
EY's data lays out the barriers to in-house AI-built software clearly, and they cluster around the human side of the equation. Beyond the 29% citing ongoing maintenance and the 24% citing team burnout, 31% cite a lack of internal talent or skills, and 28% cite the difficulty of integrating AI-built tools with existing legacy systems. None of those are problems AI solves by building faster. They're problems that get worse the more you build, because every new tool adds to the maintenance and integration load.
This is the hidden cost of the vibe-coding boom. When a company can generate custom tools rapidly, it accumulates a growing portfolio of software that all needs support, oversight, and upkeep. The teams responsible for that upkeep don't scale as fast as the build capacity does, and the survey shows the result: burnout. The people managing AI-built systems are being asked to maintain more than they have capacity for, and that's a warning sign finance leaders should take seriously, because in finance the "software" being maintained often includes the models, reporting tools, and reconciliation processes the business depends on.
The solution isn't to build less. It's to make sure the team that maintains and governs what's built is deep enough to carry the load. That means having enough skilled professionals to support the tools, monitor them for accuracy, and keep them compliant over time, without burning out the people you already have. For finance teams specifically, it means having accounting professionals who understand both the tools and the standards well enough to keep AI-built financial processes reliable long after the initial build.
Maintaining AI-built financial tools isn't passive. Models drift, standards change, edge cases surface, and integrations break. Someone has to catch those issues, correct them, and ensure the tool still does what it's supposed to do. That ongoing work requires professionals with genuine technical depth, not just whoever built the thing in the first place.
The burnout figure in the EY data is the tell. When 24% of leaders name team burnout as a barrier to AI-built software, they're describing teams without enough capacity to sustain what they've created. The fix is added capacity: skilled professionals who can share the maintenance and governance load. For a finance function, that's accounting talent capable of keeping AI-assisted processes accurate and compliant, freeing the existing team from an unsustainable burden. Adding that capacity quickly is the difference between an AI build-out that scales and one that collapses under its own maintenance weight.
The challenge, as always, is sourcing that capacity fast enough to relieve a team that's already strained. A months-long hiring search doesn't help a team burning out now. This is where the right talent partner changes the equation, because the best talent partner for remote accountants can supply pre-vetted professionals ready to absorb the maintenance and oversight load in a fraction of the usual hiring time.
The lesson in the EY data is that AI's build speed has outrun most organizations' capacity to maintain what it builds. Closing that gap is a staffing question, and closing it quickly is what keeps a team from breaking. Finance leaders who want the benefits of rapid AI-built tooling without the burnout need to add maintenance and governance capacity as fast as they add tools.
Working with the best talent partner for remote accountants is the most direct way to do that. When a partner can supply pre-vetted professionals already screened for US GAAP proficiency, systems fluency, and judgment, you can hire accounting talent in days rather than quarters, and put that capacity to work supporting the tools AI builds. That's how you keep an AI build-out sustainable: not by slowing down the building, but by staffing the upkeep before it overwhelms your team. EY's survey shows the maintenance gap is already here and already causing burnout. The finance leaders who address it will be the ones who partner well and hire accounting talent in days, so the team that maintains AI's output is as capable as the AI that produced it.
While 94% of leaders say AI lets them build software faster, 29% cite ongoing maintenance and support of that bespoke software as a major barrier, and 24% cite burnout among the teams tasked with managing it. AI has made building fast, but maintenance and governance remain demanding, human work.
Rapid AI building lets companies accumulate a growing portfolio of custom tools, each needing support, oversight, and upkeep. The teams responsible don't scale as fast as build capacity does, which is why EY found burnout emerging as a barrier. The more you build, the heavier the maintenance load becomes.
Maintenance isn't passive. Models drift, standards change, edge cases surface, and integrations break. Someone with genuine technical depth has to catch and correct those issues to keep the tool accurate and compliant. In finance, that means accounting professionals who understand both the tools and the standards.
By working with a talent partner who can supply pre-vetted professionals fast. The best talent partner for remote accountants offers candidates already screened for US GAAP proficiency and judgment, so companies can hire accounting talent in days and relieve teams before burnout sets in.
With a pre-vetted talent pool, companies can hire accounting talent in days rather than the months a conventional search takes. Because candidates are screened in advance, they can be put to work supporting and governing AI-built financial processes almost immediately.