The rise of artificial intelligence has been rapid and undeniable, and the tech is already having a big impact on the world of banking and finance. One area AI tools are rapidly making a big impact is in accounting — but we’ll still need accountants, right?
Moss Adams, a large professional consulting firm with offices throughout the US, put out a recent study that looked at how accountants are adjusting to AI. Bill Armstrong, chief innovation officer of Moss Adams, said the survey reveals a sense of excitement about the possibilities of AI as well as reservations about how it will affect the profession of accounting as a whole. A large majority of respondents, for instance, are very concerned that the tools may impact job quality. What if the tools make your job, well, boring?
“The general perspective is AI will function as an augmentation technology, freeing up time for the critical-thinking tasks that empower employees and drive innovation and progress,” Armstrong said. “There are aspects of the job, however, that can’t be substituted by AI. Accountants understand multifaceted decision-making, emotional connection, and the necessity for a personal touch — these are elements tough for algorithms to replace.”
The report notes that the rollout of AI systems across industry sectors has raised concerns about AI making some corporate tasks obsolete. Still, the survey results indicate respondents by and large rejected that narrative with the majority — 64 percent — not believing AI will eliminate their jobs.
That said, 89 percent of respondents expressed at least one concern about AI, highlighting risks for accounting firms as they accelerate adoption in a rapidly changing technology landscape.
We will all see how it shakes out; advanced AI offers new ways to look over the accounting landscape, offering potential efficiency, accuracy and insights. From automated data entry to advanced analytics, these tools are removing more mundane repetitive tasks, freeing up accountants to focus on higher-value activities. AI solutions can categorize expenses, detect anomalies, and predict financial trends with remarkable precision. Additionally, natural language processing enables conversational interfaces for intuitive interaction with financial data. As AI continues to evolve, accountants will be able to leverage these tolls in the following ways:
Automating routine tasks: AI can automate repetitive tasks such as data entry, invoice processing and reconciliation. This frees up accountants to focus on more strategic activities.
Fraud detection: AI algorithms can analyze large volumes of financial data to detect patterns indicative of fraudulent activities. This helps prevent and detect fraudulent transactions more effectively than traditional methods.
Financial forecasting: AI-powered predictive analytics can analyze historical financial data to forecast future trends, helping businesses make informed decisions about budgeting, investment and resource allocation.
Expense management: AI can streamline expense management processes by automatically categorizing expenses, identifying anomalies and flagging potential policy violations.
Audit support: AI tools can assist auditors by analyzing financial data more comprehensively and identifying potential areas of risk or non-compliance.
Data analysis: AI can analyze large datasets quickly and accurately, providing valuable insights into financial performance, customer behavior and market trends.
Compliance: AI can help ensure compliance with accounting regulations and standards by automating compliance checks and providing real-time updates on regulatory changes.
Customer service: AI-powered chatbots can handle routine accounting inquiries, such as billing inquiries or account balances, providing faster and more efficient customer service.
Here are a few AI accounting tools to jumpstart your research:
- Trullion: Uses AI to simplify revenue recognition, lease accounting and audit workflows.
- Vic.ai: Uses AI trained on half a billion invoices to reduce processing time.
- Docyt: Provides automated data entry, bookkeeping and expense management.
- Gridlex: AI is used to provide insights on accounting and linked with non-financial information.
- Booke.ai: AI is used for expense categorization and to flag coding errors.
- AccountsIQ: Data entry is assisted by AI to reduce processing time and errors.
- AppZen: Flags out-of-policy violations in the spend review and audit, giving analytics.
- Glean.ai: AI assists in vendor spend and benchmarking expenses against other companies.
- Zapliance: AI helps identify and prioritize liabilities that have been entered twice.
