What is truth drift?

Truth drift is the gradual divergence between an AI system's outputs and the system of record when intelligence operates outside the underlying application. As financial data moves between disconnected systems, AI can lose access to the latest context, causing answers, recommendations, or actions to drift from the current state of the books.

Example: In traditional accounting software, AI often sits on top of the ledger, requiring financial data to move between systems before generating an answer. AI-native accounting reduces truth drift by embedding intelligence directly in the general ledger, so every answer and action is grounded in the latest financial data.

Related terms: Agentic General Ledger™ (AGL®), AI-Native Accounting, Grounding, System of Record