We often hear the saying ‘The Future is Now!’ and indeed, it is! Looking at humanity’s technological advancement today is mind-blowing. There now exists a huge number of astounding devices and systems that help improve our daily lives. Together with these advancements, changes in our lifestyle became adamant too. If you stop and think about it, our ways five years ago are very different from the present day. We adapt these technological advancements to make our lives easier and these changes can also be seen in the business world.
Different industries are thriving because of the continuous release of systems that makes work and production faster and one industry that benefits from these advancements in the accounting industry. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) provided a huge opportunity for the accounting industry. With the help of AI, accounting firms can increase their company’s productivity.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
AI is a technology that enables computers to perform decision-based tasks previously left to humans. It shows up in multiple forms, including machine-based learning that can progressively become better at analysis and decisions the more it is used, and speech-based technology that can understand different voices and languages.
In the accounting industry, AI can now handle basic recording of finances, automating the long and time-consuming tasks that accountants do before. AI can also digest and analyze large volumes of data at speeds well beyond what any person or team of people could do.
AI in the Accounting Industry
The leading Big 4 Accounting Firms have been using AI to speed up their different processes, mostly the auditing process. These large firms aim to automate the auditing and contract reading processes with the help of an AI. During the last few years, each has developed their own Artificial Intelligence which is continuously being updated to improve the deep-learning skill of the AI.
Other firms in the industry have also delved into automating tax research and planning. These firms are focused on maximizing the use of the AI’s deep-learning capabilities to deliver all possible results of tax cases. Automating this process will save time for tax consultants as the AI can do this within minutes by picking out past recorded cases and giving a guided evaluation of the current case fed to it.
As time progress, it is undeniable that AI keeps on getting better and better at their jobs. It is truly remarkable as they can help automate time-consuming tasks which increase productivity and accuracy.
What lies ahead of the Accounting Industry with AI?
We’ve heard and seen it many times, most especially in Hollywood movies – that sooner or later, robots and AI are going to take over to the world. Well, despite these being remarkable creations, that scary scenario is far from the truth. People should not look at these advancements as threats, but we should rather look at it as helping hands. AIs will never replace humans, especially when it comes to consulting and analyzing data on a closer level.
In the accounting industry, AIs only opens the door for accountants to spend more time on consulting and advisory work for their clients rather than doing the tedious manual recording tasks they used to do. These AIs will not cause the termination of accountants as they are far from being financial advisors for clients.
With this in mind, accountants today should prepare to be more of a consultant rather than a record-keeper. They should keep in mind that they are not just recording data, but using these data, with the help of the AI, to give valuable financial insights to their clients.
In FAS, this is what we continuously strive more, that is automating more processes, so we can spend more time analyzing and providing business advisory service to our clients.
If you would like to discuss how FAS can help you in your business, contact us at admin@fas-accountingsolutions.com or 832-437-0385.
