As Artificial Intelligence continues to advance, it’s inevitable that it will have an impact on the accountancy profession. Three Chartered Accountants tell us about their expectations
Teresa Gallagher
Finance AI Senior Manager
EY Ireland
Artificial intelligence (AI) can remove repetitive tasks such as data entry, account reconciliation or report preparation and allow accountants to focus on advisory, analysis and business partnering, along with building broader business knowledge.
Equally, natural language processing can extract data from unstructured text documents and input it into accounting systems, reducing time and increasing accuracy.
Aside from the time savings presented by AI functionality, the profession can leverage the innate knowledge garnered in the past to design and develop programs that reduce risk and drive real-time insight and efficiency.
While AI can process vast amounts of data at a rapid pace, it is not capable of the critical thinking and decision-making that human accountants are trained to do.
Accountants who embrace AI will thrive as the human skills required to address bias in data will still be key.
Accountants’ expertise in design and understanding data biases can also be used to serve other departments in the organisation as they seek to embrace AI.
Moving forward, accountants will work together with AI, but their core analytical and advisory skills will remain essential in understanding their client’s or stakeholder’s objectives and which data will serve them best.
Shuning Li
Director, Audit & Assurance
Deloitte
Imagine asking a chatbot a complex accounting question and instantly getting a well-written, well-considered answer – similar to what you would receive from someone with 20 years of experience.
Well, there’s no need to imagine it anymore; it’s possible with ChatGPT.
To put the technology to the test, my colleague and I recently entered a real-life accounting scenario under IFRS 10 to ChatGPT.
It returned a detailed analysis with correct reference to the accounting standard. While the answer wasn’t perfect, it did wow us with its depth of knowledge and how quickly it was delivered.
This prompted us to consider what it means for accounting professionals and how our role will evolve together with the technology.
In this early stage of Generative AI (the underlying technology of ChatGPT), the first step is to understand its potential and consider its limitations.
As Chartered Accountants, we apply our professional judgement to scenarios every day and when assessing the outputs of Generative AI, this is no different.
We have a role to play in co-creating and training an AI model to create the new role of “AI model auditor”. This role will not only audit the algorithm of the model but also the ethics behind the training of the model – it requires an individual to lead the professional consultation.
Trust is a critical issue as we leverage these advanced technologies, no matter what the stage of maturity. Furthermore, we must also consider the AI’s independence and ensure the technology is monitored and assessed to provide independent advice.
There is huge potential for Generative AI to enhance the workplace, but it will not replace professional specialists. Instead, it will raise the bar for these specialists.
The role of the specialist will evolve, and deeper knowledge and a better understanding of accounting implications that can constantly challenge and verify the answers generated from the AI model will be crucial.
Although there has been heightened discussion about Generative AI in recent months, we are still in the very early days of its adoption and development. Its potential implications, with the right levels of trust, are significant for the profession.
Keith Stafford
IT Audit Partner
KPMG Ireland
The proliferation of AI technology, automation and bots touches all aspects of how we use and interact with technology today.
AI is having a disruptive impact across many industries, and it would be naïve to assume that the accounting and auditing industries would be immune to the level of change that AI can offer, but neither should the profession fear it.
A significant opportunity for the profession is the ability to automate repetitive tasks, particularly in respect of data entry and analysis.
AI will provide more opportunity and time to focus on more complex tasks, such as data interpretation, decision making and strategy development.
AI can also be used to efficiently support the audit process through the analysis of large data sets and the identification of patterns, outliers, and anomalies within the Financial Statements’ data, enhancing audit quality.
To take advantage of what AI has to offer, the profession needs to embrace the technology and invest in training programs and the creation of opportunities for accountants to understand and utilise these new AI technologies.
AI will look to automate some of the compliance and technical tasks that accountants currently perform. Accountants will need to shift their skill set to analytical, strategic and soft skills rather than pure technical accounting knowledge.
AI has the potential to transform the accounting profession, and rather than shying away, accountants need to understand how it will change the way they work and what they do.
While job security will remain a concern, it is likely that the role of the accountant will evolve to work alongside AI technologies to create new opportunities and skills.
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