AI related news

A new report from Chartered Accountants Worldwide (CAW) reveals significant enthusiasm about the use of AI in the profession, with 85% of respondents expressing willingness to use AI tools - and 91% of those aged 18–24 already using the technology. Members of Chartered Accountants Ireland were surveyed alongside respondents from 13 other Chartered bodies around the world, with the findings showing that AI is increasingly integrated into business processes and that the profession is actively embracing change. Chartered Accountants Ireland is the largest professional body on the island of Ireland, representing almost 40,000 members and educating 6,600 students. Key findings: AI is reshaping the profession - 85% of respondents are willing to use AI tools. This rises to 91% among 18–24-year-olds and is accompanied by strong understanding (59%) of the potential uses of AI in accountancy.   AI is already in use - 83% of 18–24-year-olds use AI tools weekly - mainly for general productivity, data entry, reconciliation of accounts, and financial reporting. While 80% of 18–24-year-olds feel confident using AI in their roles, only 47% of those aged 55+ share that confidence. The most used tools are Gen AI chatbots, Microsoft Copilot and business intelligence tools. 45% say AI is already helping them to work more effectively and efficiently. 31% say they are already using traditional AI in their job. 29% are already using generative AI (GenAI) in their job.   Barriers to adoption - 52% of those surveyed state that the biggest barrier to AI adoption is insufficient skills and training. 30% also cite data security concerns as a reason they do not use AI more frequently.   Upskilling is essential - despite a high willingness to use AI, there is a skills gap and feeling of unpreparedness for the changes AI will bring. 30% have participated in AI-related training through their organisation, but 92% are likely to participate if offered the opportunity. 65% expect to receive AI-related training from their professional body, while 32% expect it from employers. Commenting Barry Dempsey, Chief Executive of Chartered Accountants Ireland, said “It is really encouraging to see strong early adoption and enthusiasm in the profession. It is clear from the research, however, that current usage is largely focused on general-purpose productivity tools, rather than technical work, with much of the momentum driven by individual initiative and self-directed learning. “Only 30% have participated in AI-related training through their organisation, and among those that have not engaged in training, 61% say it is because it is not offered. There is a high employee willingness to engage, with 92% saying they are likely to participate if offered the opportunity, so bridging this gap will be crucial to unlocking the further potential of AI for the profession. Smaller practices and businesses may not have the resources to deliver tailored AI training, so it’s essential that professional bodies like ours step in to bridge that gap. There is also an opportunity for the government to play a role in supporting widespread digital upskilling, particularly for SMEs, to ensure no part of the profession is left behind as AI reshapes the business landscape.” AI is an opportunity, not a threat There is consensus in the findings that AI will augment, rather than replace, the Chartered Accountant’s role, with human intelligence remaining at the heart of the profession. Chartered Accountants will continue to rely on core skills, and the training priorities of respondents reflects this: Critical thinking (77% rate this as a priority) Data privacy and security (71% rate this as a priority) AI ethics (66% rate this as a priority) Barry Dempsey continued: “Priorities such as critical thinking, an emphasis on data privacy and security and AI ethics go to the very heart of chartered accountants as trusted business leaders. Critical thinking will continue to be crucial in scrutinising and applying AI insights to provide effective advice to business/clients. Similarly, with increased AI use, it's even more important to ensure structured, effective training to use technology ethically and protect data responsibly. “56% of respondents agree that incorporating AI makes accountancy more attractive as a career choice and we remain committed to equipping the next generation of Chartered Accountants with the skills and mindset to lead in a world shaped by innovation, from their first steps as students to their roles as future business leaders.” Read the report in full CAW_AI-in-Accountancy-web.pdf  Read media coverage Chartered accountants confident about adoption of AI in their work, survey finds – The Irish Times 

The AI revolution is well underway, driving unparalleled progress in business and finance. Microsoft Ireland CFO Áine Nolan shares her experiences and insights Artificial intelligence (AI) represents a valuable opportunity for Ireland to enhance our productivity and solidify our digital leadership in Europe.  This is according to Áine Nolan, FCA and Chief Financial Officer with Microsoft Ireland, who spoke at the recent Chartered Accountants Ireland Technology Conference, about how AI is revolutionising the finance function and driving unprecedented efficiencies.  “We have a thriving tech scene in Ireland, a highly educated workforce and really smart government policies. We can really become a hub for AI advancements,” Nolan said. The potential is significant, driven by the rapid emergence of AI as a commercial proposition and its popularity with users in both their lives and work. “The rate of AI adoption currently is somewhat unprecedented,” said Nolan. “Generative AI is capturing, distributing and democratising intelligence for everyone and that is a powerful concept.”  AI uptake in Ireland Microsoft Ireland recently partnered with Trinity College Dublin Business School to conduct research into the uptake of generative AI in the Irish market. Published in March 2024, the Generative AI in Ireland 2024 report found that 49 percent of respondents were already using the technology in some form in their organisation. “This research is less than a year old and already out of date, which just shows you how fast the rate of uptake is. We are due to release new research in March this year, which shows that adoption rates have since risen to about 70 percent,” Nolan said. Despite its proliferation in Irish workplaces, not all employers are, as yet, fully equipped to manage the implications of the AI age. “Through our research with Trinity, we have found that employees are bringing their own AI to work, with or without their employer’s consent. This ‘shadow’ gen AI culture creates risks for employers who really need to have guardrails in place,” Nolan said. “There is also sometimes a view that AI is just an add-on productivity tool you can slot into your existing workflows, but this fundamentally underestimates the magnitude of behavioural change and organisational transformation needed to unlock its value.” It will take time and a great deal of change management to integrate AI successfully as a new dimension of work, Nolan said. “People often make the mistake of simply asking how they can apply AI to their existing processes, but, fundamentally, they should be asking what they need AI to do and how it can make their processes more efficient or facilitate innovation—even creating a new service for our customers, for example.” The dawn of the AI agent Although many people currently use AI as a kind of “virtual assistant”, helping with everyday tasks, such as organising their work calendar or automating note-taking during meetings, the technology is set to assume a far more prominent and proactive role. “In the future, AI will operate on your behalf—as an agent—allowing you to eliminate tasks from your plate altogether,” Nolan explained. “This might mean making autonomous decisions for your IT helpdesk and, eventually, managing your full device refresh, from examining your POs right through to ordering new devices, checking your budgets and getting the necessary human approvals at the end of the process.  “A more complex example might involve AI looking after lead generation for your business by sourcing and emailing potential customers or acting as a customer support agent in a much more complex way than a chatbot, where it is actually making decisions on behalf of your organisation.” Microsoft and AI in finance Already, Nolan and her finance team at Microsoft Ireland are reaping the benefits of the organisation-wide implementation of the software giant’s AI technology. “Our global CFO Amy Hood consistently challenges our finance team to use our own technology to improve our processes. Her mantra is really clear—by adopting innovative technologies, finance will strengthen its business leadership through compliance, accuracy and efficiency.” And, as CFOs across all organisations assume an increasingly strategic business role, AI will become even more fundamental to their work day-to-day. “The role of the CFO is changing rapidly and, as finance leaders, we need to play a lead role in developing a clear AI strategy, ensuring our organisations have the necessary capability, technology and stakeholder buy-in. The rate of AI adoption is unprecedented and we need to be ready,” Nolan said. “In the last 12 months alone, I have seen big changes in how our own AI at Microsoft has been able to generate intelligent comments for us, as we work through our balance sheet and P&L variance analysis,” Nolan said. “We have had a big win in the efficiency of our contract review process, where we once had a full revenue recognition team analysing all of our contracts to account for them. “Now, we have AI reading 10,000 contracts a year and sorting them into low-, medium- and high-risk categories for us.” This means the revenue recognition team is only required to review high-risk contracts manually.  “We’ve had other big wins in journal entry anomaly detection, which has helped reduce risk on our financial statement—and our AI is now able to produce the first draft of the statement, reducing time spent on this work by about 15 percent.” Microsoft’s generative AI is creating models that recognise patterns in the financial planning and analysis data used to predict outcomes. “We’ve moved from bottom-up to top-down budgeting, reducing time spent on budgeting analysis from six months to six weeks,” Nolan said.  “This means we have much more time to think strategically and analytically—and to have a seat at the table in terms of our influence in the wider organisation. For us, AI is well and truly here.”

Liam Cotter charts the road ahead and critical importance of data for Irish organisations preparing for the AI revolution Right now, many organisations are experiencing caution, confusion—or both—in relation to artificial intelligence (AI). They are unsure about generative AI (GenAI), how it differs from previous AI iterations, and whether it can add value for them. With the first milestones of the European Union’s AI Act due to come into force in February 2025, focused on prohibiting AI systems posing unacceptable risk, organisations are concerned about falling foul of regulation. They are keen to ensure that any AI model introduced to help their business, undergoes rigorous testing to ensure it is fair and doesn’t have bias baked in. There are also more generalised fears regarding the cost of moving too quickly and developing the wrong solutions, however, as well as the “opportunity cost” of moving too slowly and thus failing to capture the benefits of the right opportunities. Data-based decisions Regardless of what stage an organisation has reached in its adoption of AI and GenAI, one thing holds true: the key to success is data. The only way to ensure quality AI outputs is to provide quality inputs. The way we manage and store data for the AI age differs from how we have done so in the past. Thus, even though the same fundamental rules apply, your data capture and entry systems may not be robust enough to handle AI demands and this could put you at a competitive disadvantage. Part of the problem with readying your data for AI transformation is the sheer amount of hard work involved, which may not appear not to offer a lot of value. This is because this work involves run-of-the-mill data generated from day-to-day operations. The key to the successful adoption of AI tomorrow is ensuring everybody in your organisation is aware of data management today. It is about ensuring everyone is measuring the quality of their data right across the organisation so they can stand over what it presents. For organisations that previously placed little value on the data they generate, this shift will require a culture change. It may also require different parts of the organisation to pool data—such as combining sales and stock databases rather than keeping them siloed, for example. In companies involved in mergers and acquisitions, it means ensuring you fully understand your data's lineage. The time to act is now The past 12 months have seen a growing realisation among organisations of the potential importance of AI as a lever for competitiveness. It is increasingly viewed as a valuable tool to drive digital transformation, enabling them to become more flexible, be faster to market, provide a better customer experience and more. Most of what AI will do has yet to be “dreamed up”. To put its scale in context, somewhere in the world, a data centre—the building block that powers the AI revolution—opens every two days. Organisations need to act to keep up. The first step is understanding the regulations and timeframes that are being rolled out under the EU AI Act. Next, identify use cases and develop them. Experiment—and if you are going to fail, fail fast. Get involved and discover the value in AI. People-powered data Understand the behavioural risks, too.  A lot of the work involved isn’t about technology at all. It’s about people. You can introduce the best technology in the world, but it's useless if staff don’t collect, curate and manage their data correctly. Everyone in your organisation must be able to stand by the accuracy of their data, which means good data practices must be applied to all business processes. In many organisations, this means investing in data capabilities, including staff training, and appointing a Chief Data Officer responsible for driving data literacy and good data management practices throughout the organisation, from the bottom to the top. To succeed, data management must be seen as a core, valuable component of what everyone does, regardless of their role. Break down the barriers Barriers to achieving effective AI readiness include an organisational culture that hasn’t yet caught up with the importance of data, allied to poor systems and processes that ensure people don’t understand the implications of getting it wrong. The real barrier is, however, that all of this takes work. Readying your data systems for AI is a pain, and sometimes, people can see no value in it. Once you can stand over your data, knowing it is of good quality and understanding its lineage, your organisation will likely be in pretty good shape because you can then move on and digitise your key business processes with confidence. The AI revolution starts and ends with data. Don’t underestimate the effort required to get good quality, well-managed data. It is the foundational work that cannot be avoided. Equally, don’t underestimate the impact. Once you have good data systems in place, you can confidently move forward and capture the full breadth of AI benefits that await.  Liam Cotter is Technology Practice Lead at KPMG

AI is revolutionising accountancy by automating routine tasks, enhancing data analysis and providing valuable insights for strategic decision-making. Conor Flanagan explains how Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force across various industries and accountancy is no exception. As AI technologies advance, they are reshaping the accounting landscape by enhancing efficiency, accuracy and strategic decision-making.  The emergence of AI can be traced back to the 1950s when pioneers like Alan Turing began exploring the concept of machine intelligence.  Turing’s famous “Turing Test” proposed that a machine could be considered intelligent if it could engage in conversation with a human without being distinguishable from a human interlocutor. Since the 1950s, AI has continued to evolve through different phases, including the notable period in the 1970s known as the “AI Winter” when there was a significant fall-off in funding and interest in the technology.  Since then, and coinciding with advances in computational power coupled with the development of machine learning algorithms, interest in AI has been reignited, with breakthroughs in natural language processing, computer vision and data analytics paving the way for more practical applications.  This progress, although impressive, has been somewhat dwarfed by the advent of Generative AI in recent years, with companies like OpenAI and its now infamous ChatGPT platform sparking widespread interest in the technology and its potential.  Generative AI has given rise to exciting new systems now capable of performing complex tasks, such as image recognition, language translation and content creation. And for the sceptics among us – no, this article was not written by ChatGPT. The Microsoft experience AI is revolutionising accountancy by automating routine tasks, enhancing data analysis and providing valuable insights for strategic decision-making. At the recent Chartered Accountant Technology Conference, held in January 2024, Daragh Hennelly, Senior Finance Director with Microsoft in Ireland, shared the story of how the company is unlocking business value through AI-enabled outcomes in finance. Microsoft began its AI journey over seven years ago, leveraging traditional AI to create models that could recognise patterns in data and use this to predict and act on potential outcomes, driving significant efficiency gains. Some examples include: Task automation and content creation Microsoft is using AI to automate tasks such as setting up purchase orders and logging expense reports. Streamlining processes and reducing risks Invoice approvals: AI assigns real-time risk scores to automate more than one million low-risk invoices and cuts the manual effort required for the rest by 50 percent, resulting in 125,000 hours of time saved for finance team members who can now use that time to focus on more strategic tasks. Journal entry anomaly detection: Machine learning algorithms have been built to review thousands of journal entries to detect anomalies with the aim of reducing reporting risks or misstatements.  Enhancing contract review efficiency: AI reads and scores thousands of contracts, reducing the time needed for manual review by 50 percent and allowing finance professionals to focus on high-risk contracts. The recurring theme in all these examples is how AI can be deployed to either automate manual tasks previously carried out by Microsoft’s finance team or unearth and present anomalies requiring additional review.  This demonstrates how AI can create efficiencies in finance functions and processes, but as accountants, we still need to be professionally trained to make decisions based on a smaller and more focused sample base.Over the past 18 months, in particular, the opportunity to transform business and finance processes has accelerated with the roll-out of Generative AI and its ability to create original content – such as text, images, video, audio or software code – in response to user prompts and requests. Today, Microsoft is adopting Generative AI to further enhance processes and unlock business value. This opportunity can be categorised across four main areas: Summarise information. Generate content. Recommend actions. Simplify tasks. 1. Summarise information Recap meeting transcripts to capture key points and assign actions. Distil collection agents’ call notes into actionable plans. Flag key terms in contracts related to payments, pricing and discounts. Synthesise complex workflow documents to highlight handoffs and commonalities. Summarise earnings scripts to identify significant trends and highlights. 2. Generate content Draft financial close decks and write analytical comments and insights. Write contractual language based on simple notes. Draft collection calls and follow-up emails in different languages with payment plan details. Write initial internal audit reports and investor relations earnings call scripts. Produce market sentiment analysis using transcripts from corporate earnings calls and central banking authorities. 3. Recommend actions Analyse financial close variances and recommend areas of the business to investigate variance drivers. Define collection strategy based on customer payment history. Evaluate audit workpapers and resolution disputes against audit controls.  Guide users in setting up purchase orders, invoices, expenses and payments. Recommend policy adherence within workflows. 4. Simplify tasks Accelerate financing requests by automating credit checks and policy reviews. Review sourcing contracts to ensure compliance and reduce human error.  Automate Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) operational controls and summarise insights. Prioritise collection emails, tag disputes and identify resolution owners. Streamline tax and customs procedures by identifying compliance obligations from different global jurisdictions. Central to the success of this transformation of finance at Microsoft is a strong culture of encouraging and rewarding employees to leverage new technologies to transform finance processes. As Amy Hood, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, puts it, “by adopting innovative technologies, finance will strengthen its business leadership through compliance, accuracy and efficiency.”   Microsoft is at the forefront of the Generative AI wave, advancing ideas of what is possible and investing in AI solutions such as CoPilot. CoPilot is integrated into Microsoft’s applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams), working alongside the user with the aim of helping them to work more creatively and efficiently.  It is also enhancing business application products such as Power Platform, Business Central and Dynamics Sales, facilitating advanced data analytics and the creation of complex workflows using natural language that would previously have required the intervention of a developer.  AI’s other early adopters Outside Microsoft, there are other examples of organisations that have successfully implemented AI in their accounting processes, demonstrating the technology’s practical benefits in our field.  HSBC The multinational banking and financial services company has implemented AI to enhance its fraud detection capabilities. HSBC’s AI system analyses transaction data in real-time, identifying suspicious activities and flagging potential fraud cases. This has resulted in a substantial reduction in fraudulent transactions and improved security for customers. Xero The cloud-based accounting software provider uses AI to automate bookkeeping and financial reporting tasks for small and medium-sized businesses. Xero’s AI-driven platform can categorise transactions, reconcile bank statements and generate financial reports, saving time and reducing the risk of errors for business owners. AI and ethical risk While AI offers numerous benefits to the accounting profession, it also raises some ethical concerns. These issues must be carefully considered to ensure the responsible use of AI in accountancy. Data privacy and security AI systems rely on vast amounts of data to function effectively. This raises concerns about data privacy and security, as sensitive financial information may be at risk of unauthorised access or misuse. Organisations must implement robust data protection measures to safeguard against data breaches and ensure compliance with privacy regulations. Bias and fairness AI algorithms are only as unbiased as the data they are trained on. If the training data contains biases, the AI system may produce biased or unfair outcomes. This is particularly concerning in areas such as fraud detection and financial forecasting, where biased algorithms could lead to discriminatory practices. It is essential to ensure that AI systems are trained on diverse and representative datasets to minimise bias and promote fairness. Transparency and accountability AI systems often operate as “black boxes,” making it difficult to understand how they arrive at their decisions. This lack of transparency can be problematic in the context of financial reporting and auditing, where accountability is crucial. Organisations must strive to develop explainable AI models that provide clear insights into their decision-making processes. AI and the work of the accountant The automation of routine accounting tasks through AI has raised concerns about job displacement and the future of the accounting profession.  While AI can handle repetitive and mundane tasks, it cannot replace the strategic thinking and judgment accountants bring to the table.  That said, accountants may need to adapt to new roles and develop new skills to remain relevant in an AI-driven landscape. Like electricity, the roll-out of AI will have a major impact on every industry and many professions, but only those who embrace it will learn to harness its power. Accountants must be prepared to adapt to the changing landscape by acquiring new skills and knowledge. Continuous learning and professional development will be essential for accountants to thrive in an AI-driven world. This includes gaining proficiency in data analytics, machine learning and other emerging technologies. Rather than viewing AI as a threat, accountants should embrace it as a valuable tool that can augment their capabilities. By leveraging AI to handle routine tasks, accountants can focus on higher-value activities, such as strategic planning, financial analysis and advisory services. AI is undeniably transforming the field of accountancy, offering numerous benefits in terms of efficiency, accuracy and strategic decision-making.  From automated data entry and fraud detection to financial forecasting and auditing, AI is revolutionising traditional accounting processes. Its widespread adoption also raises important ethical questions, however. To fully realise the potential of AI while addressing this challenge, organisations must prioritise ethical considerations while also investing in reskilling and upskilling their people and fostering collaboration between humans and AI.  By doing so, the accounting profession can harness the power of AI to drive innovation and deliver greater value to clients and stakeholders. If you have found this article interesting, join us for the next Chartered Accountants Ireland Technology Conference on Friday 24 January 2025. Conor Flanagan is ERP Lead with Storm Technology and a member of the Technology Committee of Chartered Accountants Ireland

The European Union’s new Artificial Intelligence Act brings opportunities for businesses but will not be without challenge, writes Keith Power Just seven percent of Irish businesses currently have governance structures in place for artificial intelligence (AI) or generative AI (GenAI). Despite this, the overwhelming majority (91%) believe that GenAI will increase cybersecurity risks in the year ahead. This is according to PwC’s latest GenAI Business Leaders survey, published in June 2024.  The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) is a sweeping new regulation aimed at ensuring that businesses have the appropriate AI governance and control mechanisms in place to deliver safe and secure outcomes.  Indeed, a large majority (84%) of our survey respondents welcomed the introduction of the EU AI Act, saying regulation is necessary to prevent the potential negative impact of AI in the future.  The new EU AI Act will also bring challenges, however. Its aim is to protect businesses, consumers and citizens in the EU from potential risks associated with AI in terms of health, safety, fundamental rights, democracy, rule of law and the environment.  By introducing standards and providing legal certainty, the Act also seeks to foster innovation, growth and competitiveness in the EU’s internal market.  It is the EU’s first comprehensive legal framework for AI and will level the playing field for businesses using the technology.  The Act adopts a risk-based approach, with its biggest compliance requirements applying to “high risk” AI systems.  These requirements include addressing data governance concerns, mitigating bias, ensuring transparency and implementing a system of quality management.  The Act also requires that users must be informed when they are interacting with chatbots, and that any AI-generated content must be clearly identifiable as such.   Several specific risks are particular to the EU AI Act, including failure to identify all uses of AI across a business as well as the potential for the inaccurate risk classification of AI uses.  The Act also obliges organisations to assess all of their use cases for AI. This may prove an onerous and time-consuming task given the dispersed nature of the use of AI in many companies. The risk of misclassification is high as risk classifications may change as an organisation’s use of AI evolves over time.  This necessitates the implementation of appropriate ongoing governance and control procedures to maintain compliance, bringing its own challenges. There is also a risk that the focus on compliance may lead to a drag on innovation.  The nuanced nature of some of the language used in the Act, coupled with risk classifications and role designations being subject to change, may prove problematic for some organisations.  The use of AI systems by third parties acting on behalf of organisations may also cause a degree of complexity.  There is much to be considered by Irish businesses to ensure they will be compliant with the new EU AI Act.  It will bring competitive opportunities, but complying with the new regulations will be a complex process. Keith Power is a Partner with PwC Ireland *Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column published in the August/September 2024 issue of Accountancy Ireland are the author’s own. The views of contributors to Accountancy Ireland may differ from official Institute policies and do not reflect the views of Chartered Accountants Ireland, its Council, its committees, or the editor.

Numra co-founder David Kearney, FCA, sees a world of potential in the advent of AI for accountants who can now expect to see their work move up the value chain David Kearney vividly recalls the release of the first version of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, by US tech firm OpenAI in November 2022. A Chartered Accountant, entrepreneur and self-confessed “techie,” Kearney had sold Peblo, his first start-up, just months earlier and was on the look-out for ideas for a new venture with global potential. “That first ChatGPT release was really the first time I’d come across the concept and capabilities of generative AI (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs),” Kearney says. “It was all I could think about at the time. I remember spending a full week of evenings staying up late just playing with ChatGPT, getting to know it, reading all about GenAI and LLMs and learning about how it all works. I was fascinated.” Almost immediately, based on his own experience as a Chartered Accountant, Kearney could see a potential commercial application for the technology in the professional field he was most familiar with. “There are literally dozens of use cases out there for GenAI. The one I zeroed in on was accountancy,” he explains.  Kearney established Numra in August 2023 and, alongside his co-founder Conor Digan, began to develop an AI-powered automation platform for finance teams.  Numra closed a €1.5 million seed funding round in December led by Elkstone Partners, the early-stage venture capital firm, and released the first version of “Mary,” its AI assistant for finance teams. Numra’s AI platform is aimed primarily at mid-sized companies with in-house finance teams processing high-volume transactions. “One of the biggest things Mary can help these teams with is workflow automation. She excels at repetitive tasks, such as invoice processing, three-way matching, payments and reconciliations,” Kearney explains. “If we take accounts payable as an example, Mary can identify an invoice from an email, extract the required invoice data and enter it into the accounting system. She can then send the invoice to whomever needs to approve it and, from there, she can execute the payment.” Kearney says Mary has been designed to behave like a “real-life team member.” She can be trained up on existing company processes and can interact with communication platforms already in use, such as email, Microsoft Teams and Slack.  “You onboard Mary, just like a normal team member. You train her on your internal processes, you give her access to your systems and then get her to start helping you with your workload,” he says. “She can manage complex tasks like answering vendor queries and performing detailed cost allocations, improving over time through user feedback. “That’s really the beauty of GenAI. It has this capability to ingest and process vast amounts of unstructured data and take on tasks that were previously too complex to automate.” The result, Kearney says, is that the role of the Chartered Accountant will be elevated with a new focus on higher-value activities that require strategic thinking and creativity. “There has been quite a lot of fear mongering around how AI is going to impact jobs in the future, including jobs in the accounting profession,” he says. “That’s kind of understandable, but AI actually represents more of an opportunity than a risk for accountants and other professions. I think it should be embraced.” Kearney began his own career as a Chartered Accountant as an undergraduate studying commerce at UCD. He undertook a one-year placement with PwC and went on to train in the firm’s audit department. “The Chartered Accountant qualification had been on my radar for a long time and I specialised in accounting in my final year at college to get the CAP1 exemption,” he explains. “I always had a very strong interest in business and entrepreneurship and I felt that the Chartered Accountant qualification would be a really good launchpad for my career. It’s very dynamic and it gives you a lot of career options.”  After qualifying, Kearney moved to southeastern Australia in 2018 where he spent three-and-a-half years in Melbourne working for large-scale organisations like PZ Cussons, RACV and National Australia Bank.  “I worked in finance departments, mainly in financial planning and analysis. I had an amazing time and built up some great experience in commercial roles, but it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to do something for myself,” he says. After returning to Ireland with his partner Grace in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kearney hit upon the idea for Peblo, his first venture.  Peblo was a financing platform for content creators and influencers. Kearney established the start-up in late 2020 with co-founder Jake Browne and sold Peblo less than two years later to Wayflyer, the Irish-owned e-commerce funding platform. “Peblo was a bit of a crazy idea. It was an invoice factoring company for influencers and their talent agencies.  We were basically buying sponsorship invoices from influencers, so they could get paid sooner for sponsored work for brands. It took off. It grew legs really quickly and we sold in early 2022.” Peblo’s rapid growth and early acquisition was like “lightning in a bottle,” Kearney says now. “It’s rare enough that a start-up would scale that quickly and attract interest from a buyer,” he says. “It was good timing, a good value proposition. Sometimes things just work out.” Peblo may have taken off at lightning speed, but Kearney’s interest in technology goes right back to childhood. “One of my earliest memories is of my grandad’s Apple Macintosh computer. That was back in the early nineties. I was glued to the thing every time we visited and he ended up gifting it to me before I had even started primary school.  “I must have been about four and I still remember the excitement. Since then, I’ve been a bit of an early adopter of new technology. I love trying new things. Technology has always been a big part of my life.” Now, with Numra’s seed funding round secured, Kearney has ambitious plans for the fledgling venture. “We’ll use the funding to accelerate customer acquisition in the US and to invest further in product development,” he says. “Our main target market will be the finance teams in mid-sized organisations. These teams often have too much work and too few heads. They are the most likely to recognise, and benefit from, this kind of AI-enabled workflow automation from the get-go.” For Chartered Accountants fearful that the advent of such automated financial platforms could upend the profession, Kearney says the critical role the profession plays across all sectors will not be replaced. Rather, it will evolve. “The data entry, the document processing and the ‘number-crunching’ is going to go away. AI can do all of that better than we can,” he says. “AI is very good at doing a lot of the time-consuming work people don’t tend to enjoy and that is a positive for Chartered Accountants who can instead start to focus on more valuable strategic work. “Ultimately, I think we can expect to see the day-to-day work of Chartered Accountants move away from ‘the doing’ and more towards orchestrating and reviewing.”

Artificial intelligence is ushering in a new era of tech-enabled efficiency in many sectors, but its widespread adoption also throws up ethical dilemmas. Dr Susan McKeever digs into the details Dr. Susan McKeever is Head of Discipline for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Technological University Dublin’s School of Computer Science. Here, McKeever talks to Accountancy Ireland about the benefits AI is bringing to sectors reliant on data and how regulators, Chartered Accountants and other professions must ensure its ethical adoption as it continues to evolve at a rapid pace. How is the emergence of AI impacting the world of accounting and other professions and sectors? Any profession, function or industry reliant on large amounts of data and repetitive data-related tasks traditionally carried out by people will be impacted by the advent of AI, if they are not being impacted already. These repetitive tasks might involve data entry, data assessment and the generation of reports and correspondence based on this data. AI is very “friendly” to taking over these kinds of tasks. It is really good at getting to grips with a lot of data, interpreting and analysing this data and generating knowledge from it.  The medical sector is one example of an AI-friendly sector, as is the legal sector and insurance. Accountancy is, in a sense, data-driven, but uses a very specific kind of data that needs to be assessed and interpreted, so it is quite specialist.  You can train AI to do simple, repetitive, data-related tasks in accounting. It won’t get tired and it won’t forget what it has already learned.  You can continue to re-train AI as the world moves along, or as the situation changes, and it will continue to build on its existing knowledge and become more and more intelligent. People are excited about the emergence of AI, but also fearful – is this fear well-founded? One of the fears surrounding AI is the general concept that it will “take over” in certain fields. I do believe that the widespread uptake of AI across industries will displace certain kinds of repetitive jobs further down the value chain – the kind of roles that can easily be automated.  The silver lining – and I do truly believe this – is that, as a result, we will see an uptick in higher-value roles. If you take accountancy, we will likely see a shift away from the very granular, detail-driven examination of individual transactions, for example.  Instead, with AI gathering and analysing this data, the accountant will be able to focus on higher-value work, spotting interesting patterns or anomalies of immediate value to their organisation. My advice to accountants, as with all professions, is to go with it. AI is here to stay.  ChatGPT really seeded the concept of AI in the public imagination. It is just one of the larger language models out there, but it just happens to be the one that has really landed in the public consciousness. You have all sorts of people already using ChatGPT to write letters, draft CVs and so on. Change is inevitable. The widespread use of AI is inevitable. My advice to all professionals is to adapt and prepare. Re-train or upskill if you need to. Try not to resist it too much.  What else should we be concerned about when it comes to the widespread adoption of AI? There is a fear out there that AI will start to make decisions we, as humans, used to own.  What is really important here – and this needs to be enshrined in legislation – is that, at all times, humans must be responsible for any decisions made.  So, while AI may be by your side, acting as an “intelligent” support to you in your work as an accountant, you – the human – must always be responsible for any decisions made.  Once you move away from this principle, you enter problematic territory. AI must be accountable to humans. People must maintain ownership of any and all decisions made, always. We train AI based on existing data and data sets – does this carry its own risk? In AI, machine learning models are trained using previous examples. This subset of AI uses algorithms to interpret large amounts of data. It learns from experience. So, if you use a machine learning model to train an AI algorithm to recognise suspicious transactions, for example, you might give it a dataset of 1,000 transactions in which 100 are suspicious. The model will start to figure out the pattern of what makes a transaction suspicious where a human might not have been able to decipher the “rules” underpinning these suspicious transactions.  If you train your AI algorithm based on 1,000 transactions, it might get a certain level of detail. If you up this training to a larger dataset comprising 100,000 examples, your AI algorithm will start to get really good at recognising the patterns in suspicious transactions.  One issue with this kind of machine learning is bias. If you are training your AI algorithm on what has gone before, you are also embedding biases that have existed over time. You are enshrining the world as it is, or was, into the trained examples you use. You have to be very careful that you do this well.  Already, we have seen how the use of AI-driven CV evaluation systems has brought bias to the hiring process based on race, gender, age and other factors. It is something we need to be very aware of. Are we doing enough to regulate and legislate for the safe and ethical use of AI now and in the future? The effective regulation of AI is something I feel very strongly about. This technology, like so many others, is already shaping our society and will continue to do so in the future. Our legislation is lagging behind the rapid evolution and deployment of AI in Ireland and across the world. We are behind the wave, and this is a problem. In the European Union, the Digital Service Act came into full effect in February and the Artificial Intelligence Act is also coming down the line. Its aim is to ensure that AI systems placed on the European market, and used in the EU, are safe and respect fundamental rights and EU values. These regulations are welcome, but their introduction is too slow. It is not keeping pace with AI. Our legislators are falling behind, and this has to be addressed. Otherwise, we could be looking at a society that is framed by technology instead of the democratic and legislative code that should prevail. This is not to paint an entirely negative picture. AI can be used for so much good. There is so much to be positive about in this extraordinary technology. It is up to us to make sure that it is used for good, however, and that the necessary controls are in place to make sure that we continue to have the kind of society we want. To do this, the legislation needs to get in front of the technology, and this is something we need to prioritise today. 

Artificial intelligence has the potential to usher in a bright new era for Chartered Accountants who could enjoy an elevated role in business and finance Having recently closed a €60 million funding round, AccountsIQ founder and Chief Executive Tony Connolly, FCA, is preparing for significant investment in artificial intelligence (AI), which will, he says, allow the Dublin-headquartered tech venture to “shape the finance function of the future.” The Series C funding from Axiom Equity, a London-based growth fund, has come at the “perfect inflection point” for AccountsIQ, Connolly says. “We’ve just hit a critical milestone with over 1,000 customers and users in 80 countries and now we’re poised to take AccountsIQ to the next level,” he says. The investment will allow AccountsIQ to leverage AI tools into practical, easy-to-adopt services for finance teams, Connolly says. The firm will also use the funding to double its headcount to 200 people in Ireland and other markets. It is an exciting time for AccountsIQ, which was launched in 2004 by Connolly, with founding members Darren Donohue and Gavin McGahey on board. By that time, Connolly had qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG and then studied systems analysis and design at Trinity College Dublin. It was while working in practice consulting, designing complex finance systems for large organisations, that he spotted a gap in the market and decided to set up his own company, bringing Donohue and McGahey on board as his first employees. AccountsIQ is a financial management system (FMS) for international businesses operating across multiple locations and entities. The platform handles complex financial processes, such as multi-currency consolidation, multi-level approvals and third-party integrations while also automating daily processes for finance teams.  Looking beyond the hype The emergence of the web in the early 2000s was the catalyst for the business and Connolly sees similar potential in the emergence of AI and its scope to support and enhance the finance function of today. “I remember the advent of ‘the cloud’ and knowing it would be the future for AccountsIQ. The challenge then was convincing accountants that taking their data off-premises and putting it online would be safe and secure, but that has completely changed in the years since,” he says. “Now with AI, we’re seeing a lot of hype and some fear, but we’ve already been on a long journey ourselves with machine learning and automation, so we don’t see AI in 2024 as being ‘revolutionary’. “We view it today as a catalyst for the further development of automation and machine learning and as a digital assistant we can use to help make the work of finance teams easier. I think that is really what it means for Chartered Accountants generally.  “It won’t be replacing them. It will just take the drudgery out of processing and recording transactions and managing things like controls and reconciliations. “That just means that Chartered Accountants and finance teams will have more time to focus on helping to drive their business or organisation forward with access to the right tools and information.”                                                         AI and financial reporting Research released in May by KPMG found that AI is already in widespread use in financial reporting in Ireland, with close to two-thirds (63%) of the financial reporting executives and board members surveyed in Irish companies reporting that they were already using or piloting the technology. AI in financial reporting and audit: navigating the new era surveyed financial reporting executives and board members at 1,800 companies globally, including close to 100 in Ireland. Among Irish respondents, AI is viewed as a “game-changer,” the research found, with two-thirds reporting that their board had already developed a vision or strategy for AI adoption. “The adoption of AI today, and its impact tomorrow, is very much on the agenda at board level among the Irish companies we surveyed and their global counterparts,” Niall Savage, National Head of Audit Markets with KPMG in Ireland, says. The major focus currently is on identifying the most advantageous AI use cases. “Right now, the emphasis is on learning to understand AI, its capabilities, its limitations, the opportunities it may bring and, indeed, the potential threats,” Savage explains. “I was heartened to see in our findings that companies are not focusing solely on AI’s potential to cut costs. That would be a mistake, so it’s encouraging to see that they are instead thinking about identifying the opportunities.” As a technology that is still in its infancy, commercially speaking, AI has scope to encompass much greater capabilities in the future with potential applications of value to companies and their finance teams. “The tools out there and available for use right now – the likes of ChatGPT – are already showing us the great work AI can do in collating and interpreting data from multiple sources to answer our questions in real-time,” Savage says. “This is just scratching the surface, however. What businesses are focusing on now is how they can bring all the relevant data together to enable AI to facilitate much faster strategic decision-making in the future – to spot trends, opportunities, anomalies and potential risks, for example.” For Chartered Accountants and the wider finance team, the upshot will be change – change in the way they work, their capability and their role in the workplace. “For accountants in the future, there will be less need for research, bringing data together and writing up reports – AI will be able to do all of that far more efficiently,” Savage says. “In its place, accountants will have more time to focus on more meaningful work. They will not be under as much pressure to use their time to ‘get the numbers right’. “They will be even more involved in key decisions. They will have even more opportunities to have a place at the top table. The profession could change radically and, I think, very positively.” Upskilling for the AI world To benefit from this transition, Chartered Accountants will need to upskill and align their knowledge and experience with AI, a technology that has the potential to elevate their role in business and finance. “It’s a bit like the rise of Microsoft Excel in the nineties. At that time, even the finest technical accountants had to learn to use this technology – and learn to use it well and use it quickly. AI is the same,” Savage says.  “There will always be the need for the accountant to verify the information AI is giving them and, ultimately, to make the decisions. The need to exercise caution, judgement and governance will always be the remit of the accountant, even as AI evolves into the future.”   He continues: “The top use case identified by respondents in our survey was AI’s potential to provide critical, real-time information that can then be interpreted to deliver tangible benefits – for businesses, this might mean understanding where to allocate capital, where to invest or where they might have a problem. “This will really put Chartered Accountants and Chief Financial Officers across the globe at the coalface of business commercially. We will be the people who interpret the data to bring real value to the organisation. We will continue to be custodians as we are today, but with much more powerful tools at our disposal.” Chartered Accountants Ireland Chartered Accountants Ireland welcomes the advance of AI and sees it as a significant opportunity for the profession.  With every advance in technology over the course of the Institute’s 136-year history, the profession has adapted.  “The pace and advancement of AI is an aid to the accountant who can entrust the tools to perform functions that previously required manual input,” says Ian Browne, Director of Education at Chartered Accountants Ireland.  “In this way, we see the advancements in AI as an enabler for new economic activities for the profession.” Since 2017, the Institute’s Education Department has been reforming the educational syllabus for its primary qualification, with the introduction of principles-based teaching materials in several areas. This work has spanned data analytics, data visualisation, robotic process automation, blockchain, cryptocurrency, sustainability – and AI.  Launched in 2019, the evolved syllabus reflects the lived experience of the accountant in practice and industry, Browne says.  Two years ago, the Education Department formalised the findings of a major research project. Project Athena proposed to teach the latest advances in technology and emerging accounting practice, while incorporating emerging trends in accountancy, using a blend of the most up to date technology and teaching pedagogy. “The Education Department has been preparing the output of Project Athena with the launch of a new multi-disciplinary qualification beginning in September 2025,” explains Browne. “Part of the remit of the Education Department is to ensure that we keep abreast of technological developments, assess their future value and determine how they will affect the lived experience of a Chartered Accountant.  “Only then do we consider when to add the underlying principles of these advancements to the Chartered Accountant qualification. It can be easy to get carried away by the hype cycle attached to new developments in technology, but we only add new elements to syllabi that can meaningfully add tangible value to our students and economic value to the profession.” AI and attracting younger candidates In June, Belfast-based RBCA announced a £50,000 investment in AI. Partnering with Xero, the Chartered Accountancy firm will use the technology to reduce manual tasks and administration, automate bookkeeping and generate reports and forecasts. RBCA founder Ross Boyd believes the investment will allow his team of 20 to focus more on servicing and consulting with existing clients, while also building new business relationships. “When used correctly, I think AI can transform the professional services sector for the better by removing the focus on repetitive, routine tasks, such as data entry and document processing. It can free up employees to focus more on complex and relationship-led tasks,” Boyd explains. However, while AI can learn from data and make predictions, it will “never replace the value of human judgement,” Boyd says. “Chartered Accountants will need to respond to AI, and its increasingly prevalent place in our work, by adapting, training and upskilling. There is no way around that, as far as I can see, but AI will not replace the role of the Chartered Accountant. “It may remove the burden of repetitive and time-consuming activities for Chartered Accountants, giving us more capacity to tackle the challenges only the human condition can master, but I cannot see it replacing what we do.” Boyd believes the emergence and uptake of technologies such as AI in the profession may even help to attract younger candidates in the future. “At the end of the day, we live in a technologically minded world, so it’s time to accept new opportunities,” he says. A survey of 2,000 accountants in the UK carried out last year by Intuit QuickBooks found that 92 percent had experienced hiring challenges.  “We have to provide the right learning environment for young people who have grown up using technology to do tasks and solve tasks. Gen Z, now aged up to 26, are becoming more present in the workforce and will account for 27 percent by 2025,” Boyd says. “To continue to attract young people to accounting, I think it’s important that we harness the benefits of technology to position the role – not as monotonous and gruelling – but as interesting, varied and strategic. That is where AI comes in.” Elevated role for Chartered Accountants Brian O’Malley, Senior Manager, Private Client Services – Tax and Law, at EY Ireland, agrees that AI will bring a more strategic, higher value focus to the role of the Chartered Accountant. “Generative AI (GenAI), in particular, is a revolutionary tool for the accounting profession that has the potential to boost productivity, increase revenue and manage risk,” O’Malley says. “As GenAI becomes more prevalent in the years ahead, I think we will see a shift in the role of the ‘traditional’ accountant as the technology assists more and more with quantitative and routine tasks. “We will instead be freed up to spend more time on qualitative work requiring a focus on communication, leadership and ethical decision-making skills.” Accountants who embrace AI by developing the necessary skills to manage and interpret the output of AI systems will be well-positioned to offer greater value.  “Navigating the intricacies of AI outputs responsibly and ensuring that AI-generated insights align with overall business objectives and regulatory requirements, will become a key aspect of our role,” O’Malley says. EY has invested more than €1.3 billion in AI globally, encompassing technology and services, and last year launched EYQ, its own large language model. “I use EYQ myself regularly to assist with administrative tasks and carry out research safely and securely,” says O’Malley, who is based at the firm’s Southeastern headquarters in Waterford city. “AI has brought a sense of excitement to the Southeast in that both large multinationals and SMEs are keen to explore it and ‘unlock its power’ to enhance their everyday business operations,” he says. “This was evident at our recent EY Waterford Generative AI event, which was aimed at helping our local business community to better understand how they can implement it.  “The event was attended by many local businesses, demonstrating the strong interest in the technology and its potential.” This eagerness to harness AI among businesses in Ireland will only benefit Chartered Accountants in the future, O’Malley believes. “If you consider the world in which we work, it is fast-paced and constantly changing, especially from a regulatory perspective. AI has the potential to provide us with the necessary resources to thrive in the modern business world.  “It can help Chartered Accountants to meet our clients’ changing needs and act as strategic partners to businesses as they seek to capitalise on opportunities.  “By effectively harnessing  AI, I think many Chartered Accountants will see their role expand beyond financial statements to encompass that of trusted advisor, strategist and business solution provider.”