Nowadays, big four accounting firms already adopted AI technology to help them process the huge amount of documents including leases calculations, tax services and contracts checking during auditing services.
I found an interesting report titled "Artificial intelligence and the future of accountancy" written by ICAEW’s IT Faculty, In this report, it introduces artificial intelligence and how this technology related to accounting, and how technology and human work together to help the business to make better decisions.
The article mentioned it's impossible that the technology can fully replace humans in next 20-30 years. However, accounting professionals should gain more knowledge on the technology and data, also the soft skills such as critical-thinking and adaptability.
The report also lists the strengths and weaknesses that artificial intelligence can provide in business. The strengths that the machine can provide are processing large volumes of data fast, be able to deal with more complex patterns and build models that the situation is less predictable for human, and be consistency——meaning that machine wouldn't feel tired or bored. The limit of the machine learning is some models require sustainable data to support, however, it's hard to find the right data for the machine to learn. Even the machine has enough data, those data still reflect some bias, which still cannot be eliminated when switching from human decision making to AI. Also, not all problems are quantitative, if there are some problems such as accounting fraud and ethical issues, machine learning is less useful.
Finally, the AI application on accounting can bring many benefits for professionals such as gaining cheaper and more data for decision making, coding journal entries to the accounting system to improve accuracy, preventing frauds by adding more internal controls, predicting future revenue and expenses, etc.
As an Accounting&MIS student, I still believe AI can help accounting department or firms to increase efficiency, but also bring potential problems such as legal and privacy issues, adaption problems in business, and technology limitations.
Questions:
1. Do you think technology can fully replace accounting jobs?
2. Is AI a double-edged sword?
My dad's an accountant for the Big 4 and this is something they've been discussing quite a bit. They already know that AI will most likely automate a lot of the lower level work, but that they'll require more help with what to do with all that information and some of the higher level stuff. The issue is, often times they give the lower level work to new workers/graduates because it helps them get familiar with the information and the processes/flows and once they have a hang of that, they can start doing some of the analysis and higher level work. If all the lower level work is automated by AI, how are they going to train these new workers in a way that is profitable and sustainable without losing their competitive advantage?
ReplyDeleteThe idea that AI is a double edged sword is flushed significantly in Sci-Fi novels, films, TV shows, etc. The films 2001: A Space Odyssey, Avengers Age of Ultron, and the HBO series West World are iconic pop-culture that come to my mind. I think that the double-edged sword depends on if the AI has ulterior motives.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I think you were trying to get at the economic impact of structural unemployment caused by people losing jobs to machines. This is something that I believe is necessary. People who work in service and manufacturing industries typically stand to lose the most. Requiring different kinds of training is a positive thing because it can allow people and companies to evolve and grow with the changing times, further driving innovation.
For Stephen's comments about how new workers in the accounting industry could lose lower level processing jobs—maybe it just means that new hires get more in depth technology training to become familiar with the softwares and services that machines run on to manage the data. They can train them using online modules, courses, videos, and with shadowing. These are all just small ways you can teach a person how to develop new skills, and companies across industries are implementing this.
Yes, the ethical concerns within accounting are huge; in my opinion, you can't program ethical evaluations, I think that's a unique part of the human experience. Yes, the jobs get 'lost' .... but it just means that the work changes.
It's on the employees' part to stay up-to-date on how the industry is changing and how to position themselves to get new information. People can take classes on Udemy.com for 14-15$ and receive certifications and new training for different industries, particularly with information technology. Stay up to date because the jobs and the times require it. In my opinion, it's a shift in how we as humans experience survival of the fittest.