In an industry that basically hasn’t changed in over 500 years, since the introduction of double-entry bookkeeping it’s time for a new technology to change the field of accounting. Accounting software vendors, like Intuit, OneUp, Sage, and Xero are starting to implement artificial intelligence and in particular machine learning in the accounting softwares (Su, 2018).

Accounting has always been interesting for new applications of IT (Omoteso, 2012). Basic accounting systems have been developed for a very long time already and every year new financial modeling packages are being developed for better analyses. New advances in computer technology have made it possible for the introduction of artificial intelligence in large accounting firms in order to make audit judgements as part of their integrated audit automation systems. If artificial intelligence systems are well integrated in the accounting software, it could possibly eliminate accounting errors that humans have much difficulty with finding those errors. This could not only reduce the liability of the accountants, but also push the accountants and auditors towards a more advisory role (Su, 2018).

However, central to accountants and auditing has always been that they provide “a independent third party expert opinion on the truth and fairness of financial information being presented by the management and the compliance of these information with applicable accounting standards and relevant legislation” (Omoteso, 2012). Maybe if artificial intelligence can take over most accounting and auditing tasks and be merely used as an aid for the auditor to help the auditor in his final determination of audit results. I think this is the foreseeable future for artificial intelligence in the accountancy industry. Therefore, I do not think that accountants will ever disappear, also mentioned during the Microsoft AI Summit on last Wednesday. Accountants and auditors are still needed for their final determination and in respect to their current tasks, they will simply get new tasks in the future.

Sources

Su, J.B. (2018) Why Artificial Intelligence Is The Future Of Accounting: Study. [Online] Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/01/22/why-artificial-intelligence-is-the-future-of-accounting-study/#439dfdc3337b. [Accessed on 04-10-2018].

Omoteso, K. (2012). The application of artificial intelligence in auditing: Looking back to the future. Expert Systems with Applications. [Online] 39, pp. 8490-8495 [Accessed on 05-10-2018].