How Will Automation and Artificial Intelligence Affect the Accounting Industry
How Will Automation and Artificial Intelligence Affect the Accounting Industry
Maryann Van Horn
Personal Statement
This was written for my English 102 final paper. I’m a student in the Accounting program, and I thought the conversation about what’s going on in the real world and how it could impact aspiring accountants was really informative.
Abstract
This paper will discuss how the introduction of Artificial intelligence (AI) into accounting practices will have a significant impact on the future of accounting. Accountants should be prepared for significant changes in the industry with the introduction and adoption of AI. Artificial intelligence has the ability to improve accounting performance, accuracy, and insight. Because these advances have the potential to eliminate the need for much of the human interface in accounting, accountants must be knowledgeable on how to use, support, and integrate this new technology to blend human and machine into a single entity that will become financial advisors.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Automation, Accounting, Financial Advisor, Finance, Changes in the Accounting industry
How Will Automation and Artificial Intelligence Affect the Accounting Industry
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race…It would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, could not compete, and would be superseded”
—- Stephan Hawking, BBC interview
Let us face it; accounting can be quite the tedious activity. Many even characterize it as boring. It is not a physically demanding activity, of course, but long hours spent crunching numbers is nonetheless not an easy task. Plus, you have to be good at math. Accounting is a process of recording and analyzing data collected from business transactions. There is a myriad of specialties that make up the field of accounting: Managerial, financial, and auditor accountants are examples of various types of accountants. Managerial accountants draw conclusions and assist company managers in making decisions on how to run the organization. Financial accountants assist investors and creditors to access the company’s financial performance and evaluate its financial health and risks. Auditors examine whether the financial statements correctly reflect the profitability of the business and are compliant with the different laws and regulations. A business generates data, and that data must be analyzed and acted upon if a business is to be successful.
It is in this increasingly sophisticated world of business and finance that the regulatory demands on businesses have also become almost overwhelmingly complex. Ask any accountant and you are likely to hear endlessly about the suffocating number of rules, regulations, and analytics that businesses must account for. Data analytics are used by accountants and auditors to evaluate statistics, to assess the performance of a company’s b