Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing and Accessible.org Labs expects to have real AI hybrid accessibility audit capability by Q1 of 2027. We will release the AI audit app inside of Accessibility Tracker and offer the complete service through Accessible.org.
This isn’t an automated scan like you have with WAVE by WebAIM and Axe by Deque. This is AI evaluating and analyzing web pages and reliably detecting issues.
But notice we said hybrid. This is because we will still need a Layer 2 human review and supplementation for those WCAG success criteria that AI cannot reliably detect as well as an overall sign off on the AI generated audit report.
Reliability
What AI hybrid automation audits come down to is reliability.
We have to reach a point where we can conclusively determine conformance for a high percentage of WCAG success criteria. Otherwise, we’re still at the automated scan stage.
Currently automated scans can only reliably detect 13% of WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria. Scans can partially detect 45% of success criteria, but that doesn’t really do any good because the partials are inconclusive. This means we haven’t effectively reduced the human workload because those partials still need human evaluation regardless.
So we’re looking at reliability.
The higher we can notch the percentage of success criteria reliably detected, the closer we get to having an AI accessibility audit.
The 75% Threshold
We’re targeting 75% of WCAG criteria at high detection accuracy rate. For accuracy rates, we’re striving for less than .5% false positives and less than 2.5% false negatives.
This is the threshold where we’ll feel comfortable saying that AI is contributing to the auditing at a high level. Again, this will only be at a hybrid automation level.
Human auditors will still evaluate the remaining 25% and review the AI audit results, but the majority of the auditing workload will now be automated.
What This Means for Clients
When we have the AI audit app performing at high confidence, this means clients benefit with:
- Lower audit prices
- Faster audit timelines
- Same thoroughness and quality
- Validation is faster and less expensive
Inside Accessibility Tracker
AI audits integrate directly into your existing workflow. Input a URL. AI returns findings. You review, confirm, and add your expert evaluation. Everything lives in one system.
No exporting between tools. No reconciling formats. The audit record builds as you work.
If you’re already using Tracker, the AI audits feature will become available automatically.
