An Analysis of Technology's Impact on the Role of Accountants

This report examines the significant impact of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, on the role of accountants. It delves into how technological advancements are transforming traditional accounting practices, including data entry, journal entries, and financial reporting. The report highlights the benefits of AI, such as reduced errors, increased efficiency, and enhanced data analysis capabilities. It also discusses the challenges and concerns accountants face, including the potential for job displacement and the need for upskilling. The report emphasizes that while technology may automate some tasks, the role of the accountant remains crucial for tasks requiring professional judgment, interpretation, and strategic financial planning. It provides examples of how leading companies are adopting AI in their accounting processes and concludes that accountants must embrace technology to remain relevant and competitive in the evolving financial landscape. The report suggests accountants should focus on learning AI technology to adapt to new job opportunities.

Running head: IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
Impact of Technology on the Role of Accountants
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1IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
Introduction
In the modern days the role of technology has become immensely important and all
the organisations has adopted all the policies to promote the use of technology. Accountancy
is a important aspect of an organisation by applying the principles of accountancy the
company use to record all the financial transactions of the company. The accountants are the
person who are responsible to record all the accounting entries. The companies on the
modern days use technical tools for recording the accounting entries, for which the
accountants become more dependent on the technology and that reduce the use of human
resource in the field of accountancy.
The AI revolution has bring a new dimension in the business world and in the job
market.it is expected that the evolution of the artificial intelligence system will replace almost
500 million jobs by the year 2030. Initially it is assumed that the artificial technology will
affect the job of the low level workers but gradually it is observed that in the future the AI
technology is going to effect the job of the middle level workers of the organisation like the
accountants. This made the accountants to worry about their career and they assume that AI
will make them obsolete.
Discussion
In the modern days with the invention of various artificial intelligence tools it become
more easy to keep record of accounting events which leads to the less use of manual methods
of recording the accounting transactions. Accounting means summarising recording and
tracking all the transactions that have some material value. the modern methods of
accountancy needs to keep the records in a systematic and scientific way so that it ensure that
all the transactions are recorded accurately and that the financial statement does not contain
any error.

2IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
The companies depend on the accountants for error free reporting financial visibility
and long-term growth. The manual methods requires huge time as the manual process
involves preparation of invoices, writing of cheques, and at the last stage it requires the
approval of the management. It also requires lot of manual calculations and this leads in to
the occurrence of the human error. Miscalculation typing error and other human errors
spoiled many working hours and that lead to the loss of productivity.
The implementation of artificial intelligence in the accounting process will reduce the
occurrence of the human errors and this will save many working hours. The artificial
intelligence will quickly detect the errors and thereby helps to keep error free accounting
entries. It is observed that the application of the artificial intelligence has boost up the
accuracy by at least seventy percent. The artificial intelligence also increases the output, the
number of invoices that can be raised by applying the artificial intelligence method is far
more in number in comparison with the manual methods of accounting. The manual invoice
entry requires more cost than the artificial intelligence. With the automated process like e-
invoicing, invoices are stored digitally regardless of the fact that how the suppliers send these
invoices.
In three ways, artificial intelligence can improve the accounting workflow these are
mentioned below:
AI saves time
The organisations use artificial intelligence system to save time, the accounting
software vendors are deploying artificial intelligence and machine learning for book keeping
tasks like data entry, journal entry posting, reconciliation of books of accounts and many
other time consuming jobs. Automation of these time consuming tasks saves more time for

3IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
the organisation for which they can give more focus on customer service and making
strategies for business development (Wilson, Daugherty and Bianzino 2017).
AI reduces errors
The major concern with the human based accounting system is that it contains many
human errors like incorrect data entry, accidentally deleting entries, overriding data of the
organisation, misinterpretation of any financial transaction and thereby making wrong
posting of the data, error in calculation, recording of wrong amount and many other mistakes
which are common for any human being. With the evolution of the artificial system it become
possible for the organisations to reduce the occurrence of these mistakes (Sutton, Holt and
Arnold 2016).
Artificial intelligence system reduces the occurrence of these errors by automatic
functions that file the right data at the right place. The artificial intelligence system with its
machine learning capacity able to observe the human inputs and can categorise the data in to
the right accounts. For example if any organisation has to pay a monthly subscription
telephone bill and a prepaid mobile bill the AI system will easily determine their
distinguishing features and categorise these items into different type of accounts (Issa, Sun
and Vasarhelyi 2016).
AI system provides accurate solutions, reduces errors through machine learning
features like the automated coding system. Automatic system streamline all the informations
without any manual entry, and thereby reduces the occurrence of human errors (Pannu,
2015).

4IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
AI can analyse data
The machine learning technique enable s the artificial intelligence system to interpret
data and to give important information to the management so that they can take decision
based on this information (Dirican 2015).
With this technology, CaseWare has developed a machine-learning tool that can give
predictive analytics. This system helps the user to make estimation of the financial
transactions and based on that estimation, the organisation can take any investment decision
or can frame any strategy (Lu, et al 2018).
Contribution of human intelligence in the field of accountancy and the chance of
replacement of human intelligence by artificial intelligence.
Despite of the fact that artificial intelligence can bring many advantages to the
company it will not be possible for the companies to eliminate all the accountants from the
company. In some areas, the artificial intelligence also depends on the accountant and the
company realise that fact. The role of accountant will not become obsolete but it will bring
more efficiency in the skills of the accountant. The artificial intelligence will not act as a
competitor of the accountant but it will act as a co-worker of the accountant. The combined
effort of the accountant and the artificial intelligence will bring more accuracy in the
accounting system and the company will be able to prepare an error free financial statement
(Alleyne Hudaib and Haniffa 2018).
There are many opinions given on the issue that how the artificial intelligence will
affect the job of the accountants. Some people think that the artificial intelligence will
increase the rate of unemployment while some believe that the artificial intelligence will
bring new opportunities for the accountants (Agrawal Gans and Goldfarb 2019).

5IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
The companies think the artificial intelligence as the accountants’ automated
assistance and not a replacement. The companies started to recruit accountants who knows
data analysis and who is more aware of the technical improvements in the field of
accountancy. The objective of the companies is to recruit accountants for big responsibilities,
they are trying to bring out the accountants from the conventional areas like the generation of
invoices and recording entries. The role of the accountants will change from data entry to
financial programmer (SUHAIMI, et al 2016). The accountants will set programs for the
artificial intelligence based on which the robots will work. The artificial intelligence will
gradually replace human resources in some areas like manual recording of invoices and
manual calculations and posting of journal entries (Banham 2018).
The artificial intelligence system will follow the command of the accountants. The
artificial intelligence creates automatic payment process and this will allow the accountants to
focus on managing the vendors and in other managerial areas. This will increase the
managerial skill of the accountants and they will be able to handle the challenges of the
industry more effectively. The management will get more inputs from the accountants and it
will become easier for the top management to handle the financial issues more accurately.
With the implementation of the artificial intelligence, the role of the accountant will change
from data entry to assistant of the top management (Cuadrado-Ballesteros Martínez-Ferrero
and García-Sánchez 2017).
The role of the accountant is to analyse the data and to give command to the AI
system so that it can give accurate results. Though the artificial intelligence system provide
quality output but the accountants will be responsible for the determining the quality of the
data and the impact of these data on the financial statements of the company. The artificial
system saves time for the accountants, which enables them to improve the internal control
process and properly identify the issues that require more attention (Appelbaum, et al 2017).

6IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
There are some complicated areas in the accounting system, which the machine
cannot detect and in that areas manual intervention become essential. These complex matters
can only be solved by taking the help of the professional accountants. Thus, the artificial
intelligence system cannot eliminate the use of the human accountants but they will assist
them to avoid manual errors in calculation and to detect any error of omission (Brynjolfsson
Rock and Syverson 2018).
There is no way to escape from the use of the artificial technology every organisation
will be bound to take the help of the artificial technology to stay in the market. Human
resources cannot beat the speed and accuracy of the artificial technology. The human
accountants can only do one thing, that is, to get accustomed with the new technology and
learn the process by which they can take the advantage of the artificial intelligence system.
The better they learn the AI technology the more they become eligible to create new job
opportunities and to protect their existing job. It became clear to every accountant that the
process of manual and conventional accounting system would be abolished soon from the
market (Greenman 2017).
The accountants rather than being worried about AI taking their job should try to give
more emphasis on learning the AI technology and make themselves fit for the competition.
Technology is advancing with high speed so it become inevitable for the accountants to learn
the process of the AI system and apply them in their job. It will be possible for the
accountants to serve their organisation with full potentiality once they learn the process of
artificial intelligence technology (Bessen 2018).
The basic thing is that a technical system is always depend in some way or other on
the human beings. The artificial intelligence system is also depend on the instructions of the
user. Without a proper programmer, the artificial system will not work properly. So if the

7IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
accountants learn the skills of operating the artificial intelligence technology and that will
ensure the security of his or her job in future (Ghahramani 2015).
The role of accountants in future and the examples of current technology adopted by
various companies
The current technologies like industrial robots artificial intelligence and machine
learning are advancing in rapid pace. Most of the renowned organisation in the world is using
various artificial intelligence technology (Kelly 2015).
KPMG one of the leading company in the world is using the innovations from the
McLaren applied technology in its audit process. The predictive analysis of the system allows
for the automatic collection of evidences and the production of data reports save the time of
the organisation as well as it helps the organisation to provide accurate service to its clients.
KPMG tie up with IBM’s cognitive computer named Watson. The cognitive computer
named Watson can read thousands of pages of contracts and agreements and can quickly
make an gist of these documents based on any criteria given to it (Chozas Memeti and Pllana
2017).
Like KPMG, another audit firm Deloitte recently tied up with an artificial intelligence
system named as Kira system to aid in contract and document reviewing. The system works
by taking the examples uploaded by the user as reference for accuracy, style and terminology.
Deloitte also customised the Kira system and created another tool named Argus,
which help the organisation in their audit processes, and in consulting services further, it can
assist in the tax and advisory practices also.
A report from Deloitte confirmed that the artificial system will take away half million
jobs of the accountants but at the same time it will have a significant impact on the highly

8IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
skilled employees. The robotic process automation affecting the occupation where precision
on repetitive task is essential such as accounting or managing other financial processes.
Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion it can be concluded that the role of the
accountant will not become obsolete but it become more revolutionised with the evolution of
the artificial intelligence system. AI is powerful but it also has some limitations it can only
analyse data but it cannot detect any fraud or manipulation in the system. In cases where it is
required to judge nay ethical issue in the accounting system the AI will not be able to do that
task and at that point the need of human intelligence will be required . Now the organisations
will ask accountants to interpret the outcomes from the artificial system and advice the
management about the areas, which needs improvements, and also the possible areas in
which the organisation should invest in order to get better results. The job of the accountant
in the future days will become more of a data analyst rather than simple data entry operator.
The artificial intelligence system and the human intelligence system has to work
simultaneously to balance the weakness of each other and to create a streamlined and
efficient process to help the organisation to achieve its desired objective.

9IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
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10IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS
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