AI and the Future of Apprenticeship: Opportunities and Risks

In recent years, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been nothing short of transformative. In our own office, we have embraced various AI tools like ChatGPT+ and Microsoft CoPilot Pro, which have significantly enhanced productivity. Tasks like drafting emails or preparing communication, which were once time-consuming, have now become nearly effortless. Furthermore, we have trained our team to interact with AI in their native languages, removing language barriers altogether. Even support staff, such as office boys, can now draft letters to banks using speech-to-text features and AI translation.

While these advancements have undoubtedly been game-changers, they also present serious risks, particularly in the realm of professional training and development. Today’s discussion centres on the impact of AI on articleship or internship within professions like ours.

Productivity vs. Skill Development

AI has introduced remarkable efficiency in completing repetitive tasks, such as data entry and table creation from annual reports. However, this has led me to a recurring concern: are we overstaffed because we still measure the need for people through a traditional lens? The most vulnerable in this scenario are the junior-most team members—our articles, interns, and trainees—who may no longer be required in the same numbers.

I’ve had ongoing conversations with my articles, urging them to minimise their use of AI. The reasoning is simple: they cannot compare how I use AI with how they should use it. I only delegate tasks to AI when I know the fundamentals well. If you don’t know the base level, delegating that work to AI could be a recipe for disaster. Without understanding the basics, they risk losing the ability to build on essential knowledge.

For younger professionals, relying too heavily on AI could mean they never truly learn the skills necessary for growth. Life is not just about delegating everything and doing only enjoyable tasks—it involves doing the difficult work too. Interns must also remember that when they do use AI, they are responsible for reviewing its output, something many fail to do properly.

The Erosion of Apprenticeship

One of the foundational pillars of internship is involvement in research. Often, I delegate research tasks not because I don’t know the answers, but because I want my team to discover the joy of finding things on their own. This joy promotes a growth mindset and is essential for personal and professional development.

However, with AI, I’ve observed a concerning trend. When I ask simple research questions, such as whether a transaction qualifies as a deposit under the Companies Act or falls under deemed dividend under the Income Tax Act, many interns now bypass Google entirely. They go straight to AI models, inputting their queries verbatim and accepting the output as the final, authoritative answer.

Adding to this challenge, ICAI has launched AI tools tailored for chartered accountants. Many interns trust these tools without question, assuming they provide absolute truth. This reliance is not only risky but can also undermine the very research and critical thinking skills that are essential for growth in the profession.

A Shrinking Need for Articles?

AI has indeed revolutionised many of our knowledge-driven tasks, leading to increased efficiency and reduced need for manpower. This change is becoming particularly evident in articleship, where there are two types of work: desk-based knowledge work and physical tasks like stock audits.

While some traditional fields—such as stock audits and concurrent audits—may still require the physical presence of articles, even these areas may not be immune to AI’s influence. Recently, Tesla introduced the Robo Optimus, a robot designed to perform tasks previously reserved for humans. It’s not a far stretch to imagine a future where robots take over stock counting and similar tasks.

As AI outperforms human intelligence in many knowledge-based tasks, its speed and accuracy continue to astound us. The computing power behind these systems is unparalleled, raising the question: do we still need as many articles and interns as before?

The Emerging Crisis

AI’s rise, coupled with an increasing number of students passing the intermediate CA examination, presents a bipolar situation. On one hand, larger firms that adopt AI faster may find their need for articles diminishing, as most of their work is knowledge-based and can be automated. This could create a crisis where articles struggle to find meaningful opportunities to gain hands-on experience. On the other hand, this gap in opportunities could also lead to an oversupply of articles and a mismatch between available internships and the skills needed to become competent chartered accountants.

Additionally, competition will likely increase. The benchmark for what it means to contribute as an article has multiplied, not just increased. Interns are now competing with AI models that can deliver high-quality output with astonishing speed. If AI can do a task as well as an article, why would a principal delegate work to the article? This is a looming challenge that will redefine how we evaluate talent and capability in the future.

A Changing World

The concerns I’ve outlined are not limited to our profession. The same trends can be seen in fields as diverse as carpentry and medicine. For example, in surgical training, experienced doctors traditionally work side-by-side with trainees. However, with the rise of robotic surgery, the senior surgeon often controls the robot, while the trainees are left to observe, limiting their hands-on experience. This issue is highlighted in recent studies, raising concerns that such a system may hinder the development of future experts.

This new reality, explored in Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, shows how the same training crisis could spread across many professions, where AI is gradually replacing apprenticeships with a more automated, less hands-on approach.

Conclusion

The world is changing rapidly with the advent of AI, and its effects are already being felt in articleship and internships across various professions. While AI has brought enormous benefits in terms of efficiency and productivity, it also poses significant risks to the way we train the next generation of professionals. As firms embrace AI, articles must adapt by focusing on fundamental learning, critical thinking, and understanding the deeper aspects of their work. Only then can they truly add value in an AI-driven world.

In this evolving landscape, the ability to learn, adapt, and grow will be more important than ever. It is essential for articles (and interns in any field) to recognise that AI is a tool, not a replacement for the foundational knowledge and experience that build true expertise.