AI Everywhere: What Should Accountants know?
It is a known fact that AI or Artificial Intelligence is emerging as one of the most progressive and advanced technologies that we have in the existing world today. At the same time, AI will definitely change virtually every industry as one can feel its presence right from businesses, education, healthcare services, home automation, etc. It’s also going to provide various benefits specific to accounting.
AI allows machines to learn from experience, interpret information, make adjustments and apply what they know to perform human-like tasks. Accounting is filled with a lot of manual tasks which include computing calculations and verifying data from spreadsheets and with the help of artificial intelligence, these tasks can be completed at a faster rate and will also be more accurate than by hand. All this will allow accounting firms to be more competitive in the market as the results will be far more efficient and certain insights can be delivered in real-time.
There are certain things that individuals should know about and prepare themselves for the shift that AI and emerging technologies are bringing to accounting and finance.
- Understanding current tools is one of the best ways to prepare for the future. One needs to have a proper working knowledge of all the current tools to develop a grounding in accounting practices.
- Develop communication skills; since AI will replace a large part of manual accounting work other skills are important so one needs to learn to analyze information and communicate insights by writing well and conversing intelligently.
- Stay updated on all the new developments, having a broad understanding where the technology is going and how clients and businesses will use it is vital since technology is advancing so quickly.
- Learn how the business works, as CPAs are not just accountants but also financial advisors, so one needs to know business operations outside of financial numbers. Understanding how business works are key.
AI can benefit accountants in accomplishing various tasks in many ways; here are some benefits:
- AI can help fight misrepresentation, which means with the help of machine learning algorithms, payments companies can analyze more data in new and innovative ways to identify any hoax activity.
- AI can help make accounting tasks easier as AI machines automate accounting procedures far and wide, it ensures operational efficiency and also reduces costs.
- AI can help with invoice processing; AI-based management systems help finance clients make invoice processing efficiently. Because of technology advancements in the finance sector, digital machines using AI learn the accounting codes that best suits every invoice.
- AI can also help with audits; digitization in the audit process has led to the enhancement of the security level. Data analytics is essential for auditors and it helps them establish the scope of an audit and carry out a risk assessment.
- AI helps with procurement too, there is a lot of paperwork involved when it comes to filing the organization’s procurement and purchasing methods. AI-machines process unstructured data using APIs, the procurement process will be automated.
- Expense Management, AI-machines process unstructured data using APIs, the procurement process will be automated. AI machines can read all receipts, audit costs, and also alert the human workforce when a breach occurred.
This article is basically about artificial intelligence’s impact on the finance and accounting industry, its various benefits and how one should be prepared about it. Hope you find this article useful and in case you are interested in being a CPA or want to know anything more about it you can visit our website at any time.
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Senior Manager - Assurance Quality
3 年Very good read.
CA
3 年Any plan to start short course on AI, ML plus future technology .. pls let us know. We are waiting for the same . Thanks