Accountants and Auditors

Peter La Touché (Low) says

The role of accountants and auditors will expand beyond just examining, analyzing, and interpreting accounting and financial records to managing, assessing, auditing, and certifying the inputs and outputs associated with AI accounting and financial software. This shift will require them to oversee the implementation, development, and maintenance of AI accounting software, which will substantially increase their workload and responsibilities.

Karl Chisolm (Low) says

Accountants and auditors, with their knowledge in evaluating financial and accounting data, are set to be responsible for the ongoing examination and auditing of financial data generated by AI. Their role will involve:

• Developing test strategies for AI-based accounting and financial systems
• Designing and overseeing the execution of test cases for AI-based accounting and financial systems
• Understanding the specific requirements for testing AI-based accounting and financial systems

To effectively perform these tasks, accountants and auditors must acquire new skills in analyzing algorithms and models from an accounting standpoint. This will enable them to establish and evaluate new controls for AI-generated financial data and ensure ongoing compliance with these controls.

While accountants and auditors are already skilled in managing the collection, cleaning, and validation of test data, they currently face challenges in performance and security testing. However, with the assistance of AI and further education, they will become adept at continuously verifying the accuracy of AI-based accounting and financial systems in real-time environments.

As a result, accountants and auditors will be increasingly relied upon to seamlessly integrate AI-based accounting and financial systems with real-time environments. They will need to continuously monitor and audit AI-generated financial data, ensuring error-free performance, and validating security measures to safeguard the system against cyber-attacks

Nick (Low) says

Accounting could have been automated even without AI, but it hasn't happened yet. The main reason is that people are hesitant to automate processes involving financial transactions. When money is involved, there's a natural reluctance to relinquish control. Additionally, there's a significant amount of sensitive information exchanged between the head of accounting and the company owner, making automation seem risky.

Similarly, in fields like law, people are reluctant to trust machines to draft legal documents or represent them in court because of the financial stakes involved. There's a fear that mistakes could be costly. Additionally, companies are wary of outsourcing these tasks offshore due to concerns about the security of their financial data.

In essence, the reluctance to automate accounting and legal processes stems from the inherent risks and the sensitivity of financial transactions, as well as concerns about maintaining control and data security.

Peter Swaby (Low) says

The core job description of accountants and auditors involves "installing and advising on systems for recording costs and other financial and budgetary data". Consequently, the artificial intelligence (AI) software that will be utilized in accounting is poised to become the primary system that accountants and auditors will need to implement and provide guidance on. To accomplish this, accountants and auditors will need to enhance their domain knowledge, specifically from an accounting perspective, in AI testing, data analysis, algorithm analysis, and model analysis to effectively implement and advise on these new AI software systems.

In order to offer the most valuable and timely advice on any AI system used in finance, both accountants and auditors will need to consistently monitor the inputs and outputs of the installed software. To do this, they will have to explore innovative methods to establish new controls for AI-generated financial data. They will be responsible for developing new systems to assess the efficacy of these controls, in addition to being the ones tasked with consistently ensuring compliance with these new controls.

Joelle Montaque (No chance) says

Continuous monitoring of Artificial Intelligence Software used in Accounting is essential to ensure accuracy, completeness, reliability, and relevance of its inputs and outputs. Companies need assurances to mitigate risks related to legal, regulatory, and investor scrutiny that could harm their brand and viability. Accountants and Auditors are best suited to oversee AI systems in accounting due to their expertise in financial scrutiny.

Unlike other professions, Accounting and Auditing require specialized skills that most individuals in an organization lack without rigorous training. The level of training needed to certify Accounting AI outputs is comparable to becoming an accountant. Given accountants' proficiency in analyzing financial records, they are the most qualified to verify the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated financial data. Neglecting monitoring by accountants and auditors will expose companies to increased scrutiny from investors and regulators.

As the digital landscape expands and virtual transactions become increasingly prevalent, companies will need to expand their hiring of Accountants and Auditors to ensure that every transaction processed by their AI Accounting software meets set performance standards. Accountants will play a growing role in setting up, adhering to, and evaluating controls for auditing AI-generated data. The responsibilities of Accountants and Auditors will include conducting thorough assessments to verify the integrity of operations and reports within these organizations.

Thomas Taylor (No chance) says

The increasing use of AI in institutions will not diminish the need for accountants, but rather create a greater demand for highly skilled and certified accounting professionals. As AI becomes more prevalent, there will be a need for accountants who can evaluate whether the software being used meets the necessary performance criteria to consistently generate output that adheres to International Accounting Standards. This will involve auditing the datasets of AI, analyzing its previous inputs and outputs to identify errors and their causes, and developing strategies to improve these digital products and processes. To do this, accountants will need to expand their knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning concepts.

While accountants are already required to complete continuous education requirements annually, their curriculums will now need to be updated to place a greater emphasis on the management of AI and quality assurance processes to ensure that these systems are performing at a level that meets International Accounting Standards.

Timothy Blake (Low) says

The accounting process involves the ongoing objective analysis and assessment of financial statements. Objectivity requires accountants to base their findings solely on facts, free from personal biases or external influences. Despite the belief that machines and algorithms are unbiased, AI-generated outputs can still contain systematic errors due to human-created algorithms and potentially flawed datasets. Therefore, accountants must continuously monitor AI outputs to ensure decisions are fact-based and logically sound.

Without accountants' oversight, AI-generated results cannot be reliably verified for accuracy, completeness, reliability, and relevance. With the increasing volume of financial data, the demand for accountants will rise to validate datasets used by AI models for decision-making. Furthermore, there will be an increased need for accountants to evaluate the reliability of outputs produced by AI models.

Alex (Low) says

Auditing is not able to become a fully automated job due to the way people commit fraud. It can be harder for AI to detect certain types of fraud.

Pauline Chandler (Moderate) says

Sophisticated accounting programs that can be automatically update when changes to legislation are made. Calculations can be easily uploaded and upgraded. Self-learning capabilities. Qualified people still need to oversee upgrades, etc., and to check the system is 'reading' the correct information in the correct manner.

Arthur Mckenzie (Low) says

Once technologies become more advanced, individuals will also find more innovative ways to misappropriate funds within the confines of these advances in technology. It will be the role of accountants and auditors to continuously advise and assess whether the technologies installed are serving their purpose and whether true and accurate financial statements are being generated by these technologies. Imagine installing technology only to find out that millions have been lost due to faults arising from technology, and there was no one to continuously assess independently whether the system was carrying out its intended purpose.

Andrew Davis (No chance) says

The argument that accountants are going to be replaced by artificial intelligence is baseless.

Our society cannot rely solely on the elites' technologies to determine whether they are paying their fair share of taxes. The government will always have to pursue the wealthy to ensure they pay their fair share of taxes, while individuals will always seek legal ways to avoid paying taxes. Advanced technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence will enable individuals to find more innovative ways to evade taxes, making it difficult for authorities to prosecute those who are guilty of tax evasion.

For this reason, accountants and auditors will always be required to verify whether the technologies that are being used to evaluate whether individuals and entities are tax compliant are accurate.

John Sherman (No chance) says

An auditor is a human being responsible for evaluating the validity and reliability of a company or organization's financial statements. It cannot be a system, process, or methodology. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) can serve as a tool for auditors to evaluate financial statements, it cannot replace the need for human auditors. Even if AI were to carry out the majority of tasks that accountants currently do, more accountants would still be required to audit whether AI is complying with laws and regulations.

Society cannot solely rely on Big Tech to evaluate financial statements, as they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy in many situations. For example, numerous antitrust investigations have been launched against them, revealing unscrupulous behavior. It is questionable whether society would be willing to place all their confidence in the hands of a few Tech billionaires, who will be willing to prioritize their political, corporate, and financial interests over society's well-being.

In conclusion, relying solely on Tech Billionaires and other elites to pay their fair share of taxes and evaluate financial statements poses significant perils. It is crucial to have independent human auditors to ensure accuracy and reliability and prevent conflicts of interest that may arise if the elites desire to further enrich themselves at society's expense.

Joel Fröding (Highly likely) says

I'm studying accounting & auditing at a Swedish university, and every chance I've gotten to research AI's impact on these businesses have lead me to believe that it is highly likely within 20 years.

Party Pooper (Low) says

1. There are many fields of accounting specialization. Highly doubt AI grasps the nuances of each. Seriously guys, stop making it obvious you don't work in accounting when you comment.

2. The AI everyone is familiar with right now will get worse over time as they pull bad information, and produce more bad information, which becomes a self-reinforcing cycle. Lazy people producing bad articles by using lazy methods (AI) to write for them, will put out more bad information for the ChatGPT's to train on, making the next most likely word the system pulls up the bad information rather than the good. Frankly, it seems more likely that these systems were as good as they'd ever be before people started abusing them. These companies aren't going to pay experts to identify between good and bad medical or legal information. They're not going to pay to identify good and bad accounting either.

Sorry, future enthusiast tech bros.

Ivan Cunanan (Highly likely) says

It's pretty repetitive, and you're basically just calculating numbers you see or numbers people give you not making the numbers yourself

Anonymous Accountant (Moderate) says

Even today using Barcode & PT File, one can enter purchase & sales vouchers containing hundreds of items with ease. Then there is self check out system deployed at retail industry.

Automation is increasing in data entry end of accounting while there are softwares that can generate & process audit trails. Moreover there are several CAATs that can perform audit to large extent.

All one will need in future a person-in-charge for managing the automated accounting process & a small team for auditing the same.

Guy (Low) says

It is only possible if globally ALL companies uses blockchain, but there are a lot of difficulties to achieve that. Small companies will find it costly and developing countries may lack the encryption to support blockchain as well. Hence, as much as the technology exist to replace accountants BUT practically there is a lot of barriers to do so. Not mention some countries may support crypto currencies while some don’t support, which will also be hindrance for all countries to adopt a same type of blockchain technology.

Therefore, it’s unlikely. Maybe if a huge global catastrophe happen then it may force this change among all countries.

Elena Gospodinova (Low) says

Because accounting and auditing involves a high degree of analytical and critical thinking based on experience and knowledge. There will be a certain degree of automation but complicated tax services and auditing conclusions will still be a human's job!

Daniel. (Highly likely) says

At present, take the case of online shopping: from the time the customer places his order up to the time he received it, the sales transaction is almost complete, the recording, posting, summarizing and reporting is practically done via machine AI aided programs, take note that we are in the early stages, technology evolves at a faster pace maybe 3-5yrs will see a great leap.

Profputr (Highly likely) says

I work with tax accountants and that is what my answer is based on.

The tax code is a series of if-then-else statements. Some of these are complicated but at their base, that's all they are. Computers excel at evaluating these and AI/ML are good at applying decision tree models to situations like these.

Tax accountants will counter saying that automating the tax code will free them up to better serve their clients. However, most accountants aren't trained to do that and couldn't sell air to a drowning person. They will be replaced by intelligent sales support systems and professional sales people.