Impact of Robotics Development on Accounting Profession: Initiatives by Big 4 Firms

This article discusses the impact of robotics development on the accounting profession and initiatives taken by the Big 4 accounting firms to cope up with it. It also covers the concept of artificial intelligence and its role in accounting.

Introduction
This assignment is about the development of robotics in the field or area of accounting. We are
going to discuss about the impact of this robotics development on the accounting profession and
about the 4 big accounting firms that are making initiatives to leave the other firms behind by
using the artificial intelligence technology in right way. With the advent of fast paced
technology, no area of our lives has been left untouched by transformation (Barrat, 2017).
Everything little or big things we used to do earlier is now heavily influenced by the advent of
technology. In kitchens we have Microwave, Owen, Bread Maker etc, in entertainment we have
3D, 4D, IMAX technologies, we use to register our attendance manually in our office or at our
school earlier but this manual attendance registering has been replaced by thumb punching
machine, landlines have been replaced by smart phones etc. Now if we talk about some
particular professions that we never thought of getting replaced by anything or anyone are now a
perfect example that it is the technology that is deriving us and we the humans now are just an
alternate when this technology fails or don’t work accordingly (Marr, 2016). Machines in
hospital that treats the cancer patients, software’s that tells an organization about decision
making process, accounting software’s gives you an accurate financial statement of your
organization, Artificial Intelligence i.e. a robot doing every other thing that a human being is
capable of doing etc are some of the example of technology overtaking almost every other
profession (Chakroborty, 2016).
Analysis
The first question that would arise in the mind of the audience of this essay is about the Artificial
Intelligence, what is artificial intelligence or AI, well a very simple answer to this question is
that, a robot or a machine that is capable of performing everything that a human can do or
perform except few of the things of course (Kurzweil, 2018). The robot here is means a proper
robot or a machine that has a wide knowledge about almost everything, this machine can work
according to the standards that its makers sets for it and what is new about this technology is that
they says that it will have the capability of understanding human feelings and they can respond
back understanding these feelings in an accordingly manner (Vasarhelyi, 2016). The assignment
requires us to study about the initiatives of any four big accounting firms in order to cope up with
the impact of the robotics on their professions. In the business world following four
organizations are called the Big 4 firms (Faggella, 2017):
Deloitte, PwC, KPMP & EY
These organizations are the big 4 accounting organizations that are having a wide customer base;
these organizations have clearly understood the concept that it is the artificial intelligence that
can take them a step ahead from their competitor (Shimamoto, 2018). These four big accounting
organizations have invested heavily in the field of artificial intelligence not only to have to earn
more customers but to have a workforce that is stress free and is more productive. If we first talk

about the Deloitte accounting organization then the initiatives taken by this organization in the
area of artificial intelligence are under (Shah, 2018):
Deloitte
An article recently came to light about the initiatives of the firm in the field of artificial
intelligence, the organization claims to have used artificial intelligence in a way that the
automated software or the robot assess the information from the papers of contracts, deals
etc, which heavily reduce the time spent by the human and it has increased the
productivity of the organization (Australia, 2016).
One of the another initiative of this firm is that it has built a wide network of startups that
are working on artificial intelligence in order to provide the end customers more
economical and useful solutions.
In one of his statement, the managing director of the U.S Deloitte Group said that they
are working very hard to develop artificial intelligence into almost every working of
theirs as this is something that will not only make their organization more effective and
efficient but will also bring out more customer friendly solutions (Duin, 2015).
Last but not the least this organization has started funding the newly built startups that are
working on developing the platform of artificial intelligence but have limited financial
resources or others, so by funding the Deloitte group is making sure a perfect growth and
results in this area of technology not only for their benefits but for the customers friendly
solutions.
PwC
Now here we are going to discuss about the initiatives that are taken by the PwC. The name of
this organization is the Price water house coopers. This organization comes on the 2nd place in
terms of revenue. In a recent board meeting, the organization claims that it has started working
on the artificial intelligence concept. The following are the initiatives that are taken by price
water house coopers (Nilsson, 2016):
The PwC organization won the award for “Audit Innovation for the Year” for their extra
ordinary PwC’s technology GL.ai. This technology was built in partnership with the
H2O.ai. The main purpose of this technology was to assess the reports and the papers and
minimize the human efforts in order to make the employees more productive and stress
free. This technology was really extra ordinary and amazed the business world as well.
This technology can also prepare audit reports without needing any supervision (Bakshi,
2016).
The other initiative taken by this organization is that they are investing heavily in the
natural language processing (NLP). This means that the artificial intelligence technology
will able to understand the complex language of audit and business meetings, this will

further improve the results provided by the technology, which will ultimately benefits the
organization and the end consumers.
The good thing about these big 4 accounting giants are that they are not only working on
the artificial intelligence secretly rather they are working on it and sharing the
implications and suggestions for the organizations that wants to adopt artificial
intelligence in future.
The statement by the organization clearly shows their dedication for the artificial
intelligence, the group says that it is now the artificial intelligence that will transform the
business world but the user must need to collaborate with the technology.
Ernst & Young
The third name in the big 4 firms is the name of the Ernst & Young organization. It is again one
of the largest organizations that have numerous firms under its hood. The organization is
primarily in the business of providing services of insurance, service tax, audit, advisory etc. Now
we will discuss the initiatives of the Ernst & Young in the area of artificial intelligence (Thessar,
2018):
The organization has also started introducing the concept or technology of artificial
intelligence primarily in the area of lease contracts. The executive group of the
organization in a meeting claims that the artificial intelligence has made it very easier for
them to assess the completion of the contracts, amounts to be paid, contract starting date
etc.
The Ernst & Young has recently in an article stated that they are working on to automate
the auditing process of the organization as if they come out successful in this process then
it is going to reduce the time taken by their employees to manifolds. The organization is
determined to make remarkable contributions and initiatives in the area of artificial
intelligence.
The Ernst & Young Australia has claimed that they are already using the artificial
intelligence based technology for the purpose of auditing by using Robotic Process
Automation (RPA). The organization claimed that 50% of their audits were done by the
robotics process automation. This is great news for the organization as well as for others
that are looking forward to adapt this technology.
The Ernst & Young organization is also using drones for the purpose of auditing this
makes the auditor not to go and check the inventory manually, the auditor can meanwhile
concentrate on the areas that holds extensive risks in auditing. Artificial intelligence is
proving out to be a perfect bliss for the accounting organizations.
KMPG
Now coming to the 4th organization and one of the biggest organization and a part of the big 4
organizations, we are going to talk about the KMPG firm. The firm employs a total number of 1,

89, 000 people. If we talk about the KMPG then it has its own convoy consisting of different
artificial intelligence technologies. This technology is called the KMPG Ignite, the main
noticeable thing about this technology is that it is being built keeping in mind the existing
infrastructure. Now we are going to discuss the initiatives taken by the KMPG organization in
the area of artificial intelligence (Shokley, 2017):
Like the other three organizations, KPMG is also working on building a technology that
can be easily used in auditing the agreement of investing, leasing and other contracts.
Here the organization claims to be having applied the artificial intelligence technology.
The organization built a technology inspired by artificial intelligence called the call
center analytics. This technology helps the customer care to record the call of the
customer and then frame it into some key words on which the customer was emphasizing
on. This helps the organization to work on their low points and also it enables the
organization to have future trends for the customers.
Artificial Intelligence event predicting tool is another attraction of the KMPG; the
organization as said above is having its own streamline of different artificial intelligence
technologies. This technology helps the organization to have data or predictions about the
events that may occur in the organization. The managers or the senior executives can then
work accordingly to create those future events favorable for the organization.
In the year 2016, the organization joined its hand with the IBM and made an agreement
to work upon artificial intelligence to enable them to have technology that can assess the
audit and lease contracts. The agreement between these two business giants was called
“Participation Agreement”.
Now if we talk about the Internet of Things then it is something a way ahead than the artificial
intelligence. However to some extent both the concepts are same. But if we talk about Internet of
things then no company or an institution or an individual has reached to even 1% of the potential
of the internet of things. Yes that’s true. The Internet of Things is a whole network that not only
connects your computers but also connects every smart device that we use in our daily lives.
Artificial intelligence is something related to the technology (Robot) doing the work that we
human find difficult and the Internet of things is a concept that not only connects every device
but also take effective decisions and perform actions on the behalf of an individual or an
organization. Suppose one has Internet of Things concept in his car then in case that person met
with an accident then the Internet of Things will automatically let know the nearest hospital &
Police station about the accident. Another example can be suppose one has this concept installed
in his house then if this system doesn’t receive any foot movement for more than 30 minutes
then the Internet of Things will send a message to the owner telling them that the windows, doors
and all the electricity appliances has been closed down and will turn back to normal once the
owner comes back to the house. The big 4 organizations are working on this concept as well, as
alone artificial intelligence can only perform actions but cant correct the things that doesn’t go as
per plan. Hence along with the Artificial Intelligence the Big 4 companies are spending their

significant part of capital on research for these concepts to make the future really worthwhile for
the organizations and for the customers as well (Pfister, 2016).
Conclusion
After going through intense research and working out on every little detail about the artificial
intelligence in accounting, a brief conclusion has been provided here to make a final decision
about the artificial intelligence and its role in accounting. The 4 big firms namely PwC, KMPG,
E&Y, Deloitte are investing heavily upon the research on the technology of artificial
intelligence. There is no doubt that the future is full of surprises and the only thing that is having
a bright scope in future is the artificial intelligence only. Different sectors are working on
artificial intelligence differently, for example the automobile industry is working on driver less
cars, the mobile phone industry is working on devices that can not only read your facial
expressions but can understand all of what you say and how you feel. This is one of the very big
examples of artificial intelligence taking over all other technologies. The business organization
knows that the if now they do not adapt to the artificial intelligence culture then soon a time will
come that the organizations will have to pack their bags.

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