Most digital accessibility companies have premised their software and platforms around automated scans. And now they’re doubling down on scans by adding new AI features to those scans.
To date, the scan-based approach has paid off handsomely, with companies collectively reaping in over a billion dollars in large part thanks to those accessibility scans.
But as the market becomes more informed and compliance demands become even more strict, that once golden software may turn to bronze as demand shifts to audit-based platforms.
Table of Contents
Why is the Market Shifting?
Automated accessibility scans — whether or not they include AI — are extremely limited in how many accessibility issues they can catch. Currently the best scans on the market can only reliably flag 13% of WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria. They can partially flag 45% of success criteria, but that necessitates a manual review.
And, of course that means that 42% of WCAG success criteria are completely undetectable by scans.
All of the above leads to an audit still being necessary so consumers are realizing they can skip out on the scan (it won’t tell them all of the issues needed for full WCAG conformance) and get the audit.
Advancing artificial intelligence will create super scans that flag even more issues, but, again, an audit will still be needed as even the best scans with the best AI still won’t come close to reliably flagging a large percentage of WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria.
Where is the Market Headed?
Leaders and project managers want accuracy in tracking progress. They also want accessibility platforms that harness incredible AI technology and make it ready for showtime, with in-dashboard AI assistance for fixes and AI project insights that use existing data to help them with accessibility compliance.
This leads to a market shift towards audit-based platforms that account for full WCAG conformance of digital assets.
For example, let’s use the illustration of a corporation with 5 websites and 2 mobile apps. With an audit-based accessibility platform, that corporation can upload their accessibility audit reports and instantly track all issues across all projects.
They can also have analytics, data visualizations, and progress reports all based on the progress that each team member is making.
All of this isn’t possible unless the platform is audit-based.
Audit-Based Platforms
Audit-based platforms are not just replacing scans; they’re redefining what accessibility management looks like. Instead of working from incomplete and often misleading data, organizations gain a reliable foundation to build from. Every issue tracked, every fix validated, every report generated — all of it is based on verified audit data, not guesswork.
This shift delivers three clear advantages:
- Accuracy: Progress metrics and compliance tracking reflect the true state of accessibility, not an inflated scan score.
- Credibility: When stakeholders, regulators, or plaintiffs ask for evidence, audit-based data stands up. Scan results do not.
- Efficiency: Teams spend less time sifting through false positives or partial flags and more time making actual improvements.
AI in Audit-Based Platforms
The irony is that AI becomes more powerful in an audit-based system than in a scan-based one. Instead of analyzing flawed inputs, AI is applied to complete and accurate datasets. That means:
- AI assistants can guide developers through remediation with precision.
- Project insights can forecast timelines, identify systemic problem areas, and highlight bottlenecks in the workflow.
- Compliance leaders can generate executive-level reports instantly, with data that can be trusted in both business and legal contexts.
The Future of Accessibility Software
The market is moving toward platforms that prioritize accuracy with intelligence. Buyers want technology that not only helps them check a compliance box, but also proves progress, prevents regression, and integrates with how their teams actually work.
The organizations who get their desired accessibility and compliance outcomes won’t be the ones chase the highest scan percentage. They’ll be the companies who:
- Build their platforms on audit data.
- Layer in AI that makes that data actionable.
- Provide teams with clear, accurate, and defensible measures of accessibility.
Just like scans, the companies who have built around them have been off. Just as organizational needs have reached their peak, all scan-based “solutions” are misaligned with the market needs.
Audit-based accessibility platforms that provide for accurate tracking with full WCAG conformance are the future of accessibility and compliance.
