Artificial intelligence is changing all sorts of industries including the high resource intensive accounting industry. Even though artificial intelligence may challenge and lead to job insecurity for most of the professions, it has some major limitations in taking over accountants space. The technology can automate part of accountants role, it cannot replace accountants anytime soon. In fact, AI could help accountants in saving time and eliminating more burdensome tasks resulting in high productivity. With AI, the perceived outcomes are in saving time, increased productivity reduced costs, and better accuracy. Artificial Intelligence enables the following in the Finance and Accounting industry
- Maximum Efficiency
- Automated data entry
- Clearing Invoice Payments
- Expense Claim Auditing
- Determining Bonus Accruals
- Risk Analysis
- Automating workflow approvals
AI helps accountants to work with data in many ways to get precise and accurate data rapidly for every tax report they generate. This will also help accountants for the compliance. Data categorization is also being strongly affected by AI. The bots can determine, categorize and segregate all the information into different accounts and heads by themselves. They also help in segregating and organizing data from the same source into different categories.
Machine learning which is the part of AI also play a major role in learning from various human input to make better and accurate judgments and to adapt to accountants’ behavior patterns. Machine learning helps by providing great opportunities to develop high integrity accounting for the accountants. Since the high integrity accounting is the data untouched by humans, This could potentially eliminate data entry and coding entirely. Since the data entry part is eliminated it will make accountants more proficient, productive, add more value to clients and, add more clientele. The procedural changes with AI could invoke change resistance since security concern is one of the key issues faced by the accounting department. These transition concerns might not be a major challenge since the accountants will still remain as the final approvers of all the tasks performed by the artificial intelligence and they have the control over the data. Through the introduction of AI in the accounting industry, the accountants are getting more “technology friendly” and their mindsets are changing but accommodating technology along with accounting.
