Hey, there. I'm Maiki Lynch and I'm an accountant. And in this series from ACCA, I've been sitting down with other accountants and people who work in finance to hear about their journeys in the world of work, and bust some common myths about these careers along the way. This week is our final episode, and it's a rather special one because we are going to be squaring up one of the biggest questions facing not just those working in accounting and finance, but has the potential to change almost
every area of our lives. That's right, it's artificial intelligence. These days it seems like AI is always in the news, whether it's ChatGPT helping students write essays, or big manufacturing companies changing their processes. But is AI going to have a big role to play in the future of finance? Is it going to help or be a hindrance? And what could it mean for careers in accountancy? Let's find out. This is By All Accounts.
Depending on how it's discussed, the changes AI may bring to our lives can feel either like a golden opportunity or a looming threat. So when it came to careers in accounting and finance, I've gone to the experts. First up I have ACCA's own Head of Technology Research, Alistair Brisbourne, who's been digging into what AI means for the future of accountancy. Hello, Alistair.
Hello, Maiki.
And also Imtiaz Ahmad. Imtiaz qualified as an accountant back in 2007 and has worked in both the private and public sectors, all the way from junior roles to top executive levels. He's here to share his views on how the industry has changed over the years and is continuing to change. Hello, Imtiaz.
Hi.
Welcome. So Alistair, I'm going to come to you first. I know AI is everywhere these days, but it can feel a little bit of a black box to some. Can you give me a really straightforward explanation as to what AI is?
Well, that's a challenge. Basically, AI is about using a computer, the strengths of computers, to do things that used to be done by human intelligence. I think something that we're also aware of that's accessible to all of us
is thinking about smart playlists. Whether you're using Spotify or Apple Music, these playlists, they know what music you like and they know why you like it because they're assessing the music that you're listening to, they're assessing the music that other people listen to, in order to make suggestions
as to other songs that you might like. So what it's doing is there's this algorithm that's learning from data, in this case your music choices, and then it's making suggestions as to other songs you might like. And that applies to basically all forms of artificial intelligence. It's as simple
as a machine understanding patterns within data. And so as you say, it's pervasive in our lives, whether it's the mapping systems we use to get here today to understand traffic flow information, to understand route guidance, all this is infused with AI. Or the quirky questions we ask our Siri and Alexa and Google assistants, that's all AI- based.
Or we had the Beatles release a song last year, for example, thanks to a machine learning tool that was able to extract data from an old hissy tape and turn it into a new track. And so AI is basically using the strengths of AI to recognize patterns within large data sets and extract that in a useful way for us.
What's this got to do with accounting and finance and the roles that we have?
Well, I mean, the core of our job is to look at huge amounts of financial data, as well as other forms of data these days. We're looking at more unstructured data sets like text these days and imagery and things like that. And so being able to extract insight from that data is absolutely fundamental in the accountancy role, and it
will be even more so moving forward. If you think about some of these routine tasks that accountants are involved in, the data entry tasks, reconciling debits and credits, and some of these basic things that everyone has to learn along the way, AI is really useful in not just saving time, but also reducing errors and increasing accuracy in those
processes, so it's fantastic. And then we can apply it to things like fraud, so identifying anomalies within data sets, improving our risk management processes. We can use it to help interpret tax law, to help fill out forms. So there are a myriad ways in which AI can help the accountancy profession, I think we're just scratching the surface at the moment.
I love what you've talked about there because it sounds like we're going beyond just efficiencies that can be made, perhaps some more the entry level roles there.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Efficiency is the immediate go- to we think about when we think about AI and automation, but really it's about enabling better strategic advice. It's about moving beyond just the transactional aspects of the role and actually providing that business acumen, that strategic acumen, that accountants actually
do have. They have a solid understanding of their organization because of the information that they're working with.
Imtiaz, I'd like to come to you if I may. You've been in senior accounting roles for some time. What conversations have you been hearing about AI?
Well, it depends on the context. Usually AI is taken as a threat. Every time, if you see the last 50 to 70 years of human history where we have evolved so much technological development and everything around it, whenever there is a new technological development, new advancement, there is a new milestone, it's always taken as a threat first. And then later on people realized, " Oh, no, no, no, no. It was
a mistake. It's better for us to enable us to help us to facilitate the processes." So the same thing is with AI. You see now we are, as Alistair has said, that we are more of at the initial stage of scratching the surface. There are so much more we are going to do, not only in accountancy, but in
every other aspect of life. The reconciliations between one account to another account, between one organization to another organization, is going to be automated. We are going to be working more on analytical side than the data processing itself.
And within your own work, has it changed your own work, has it?
Oh, so much, so much, so much so. I remember when I started working right after my qualification in 2007, I was working in public sector in one of the organizations in Pakistan. And I mean, you will be surprised, it was not that old time, but still people were using the ledgers, the hardcore printed ledgers, and we were doing actual reconciliation between bank and the ledger by hand on the ledger, on the-
I'm not surprised. When I learned bookkeeping, I would go out and bookkeeping was in books, if you could imagine - books!
Exactly.
Yes. And that T- account that you learn about in college, that is the spine of the book. That's where the T- account comes from.
True, true. I mean, it's like 14, 15 years ago only, and now, a few years back, I was working with one of the Big Four consulting firms, and one of the assignments we were working ... One of the Sovereign Wealth Fund for preparing their financial policies and procedures, and took us at least two to three months to first prepare the data process flow diagrams, and then explain them into
the policies and procedures. And that was so much manual work. We were writing from our own heads, " Okay, the data is moving here," and there is approval and everything. Now you'll surprised to know that you can take the picture of the data flow diagram and give it to ChatGPT or any other relevant AI, and then it will write you just like that, give it in two minutes.
Wow. Such a time saving.
Of course. And then what we are going to do with that, we are going to purify that, we are going to add value to that. It doesn't mean that we are going to be out of job because AI has replaced that processing of the data, that writing down the policies and procedures manually. No, we are going to work on much higher level quality. So output is going to be a niche level of the quality actually in the coming time.
So we're freeing up our time-
Of course.
... to add value to the business, rather than having to be involved in such labor- intensive tasks.
Exactly, exactly.
I love that. Alistair, I want to come back to you. You've done some research on how potential students feel about AI. Just wondering what have you found?
It's interesting, and it's interesting, I'm listening to what Imtiaz was saying as well because there are obviously a few different challenges here. To answer the question directly, Generation Z does seem to be slightly more concerned about the impact of AI than other generations. We look at our talent trends work, in the last two years it's that generation that expresses the most concern about
technological development in general, but AI specifically. And that's slightly counterintuitive-
I agree.
... because we tend to think they're coming in with a skillset or an awareness of these technologies that maybe older generations don't have, so we are surprised to see that. And when we dig into it and ask the questions and we get into the discussions, it does seem that there are a couple different reasons for that. One is that there is a concern that their career path is going
to be disrupted by automation or AI. That there's a lot of talk about those entry- level jobs being affected, and they're very aware that that could mean them. And so what does their career look like in the future is a challenge. Then the other side of it's the skill side. There is this impetus to be more tech- aware, to have that tech skillset. That's exciting for some
people, but it's not exciting for everyone. And so I think part of it is the messaging and the communication in that there's actually a huge opportunity and this next generation is going to be really, really important to how
AI is adopted. And we've already discussed how AI is really fundamental to the evolution of the accountancy profession, but they're going to be at the heart of devising the solutions, the new ways of working, but also in leveraging
those new insights, as Imtiaz was saying. So they are going to have an opportunity earlier in their career to actually take on more strategic roles, not to be bogged down in some of the more manual tasks that a lot of people who qualified earlier were in their careers.
So actually we need to communicate more the exciting opportunity that exists for people that are coming into the profession now because it does seem like job security and skills challenges are the major concerns that Gen Z are expressing when they think about AI.
And I don't know if your research touches on this, but does this compare to what we're seeing in other industries outside of accounting and finance?
I mean, I think a really, really good comparison is the legal profession. It's similar in the sense that we're at a similar stage in terms of the adoption of AI, but also some of the ways in which AI is starting to make a difference is similar. So we think about routine tasks in the legal profession, there's a lot of contract or document review that has to take
place. While we're reconciling data, entering data, they're doing what are very manual, time- intensive review tasks. They're also more heavily involved in compliance and risk management. And so there are big similarities in terms of the way the professions
are going. And most law firms used to have big libraries at the heart of them, and then they moved online to things like LexisNexis and databases, and now they're adopting things like generative AI in order to help them extract information from those databases more efficiently or more effectively. And so it's very similar to what accounting and finance professionals are trying to do right now, so I wonder
if these two will evolve together. We could learn a lot from each other probably in the way we're moving.
How do you think things are likely to change, if you can perhaps look forward?
Yeah. Imtiaz has already pointed to some really important changes that are starting to happen, AI is really going to enable that, and that is using AI- generated insights in order to
provide greater value. The big challenge we have is that, as I said at the beginning, we're faced with huge amounts of data, and getting our heads around it and extracting the most useful insights for our organization is really difficult and really time- consuming at the very least, and
impossible in some cases because there's too much information. And so AI is really a huge step- up in our ability to actually guide organizations to provide a trusted source of advice, and also to provide greater value out of the proprietary data that organizations have access to. And without AI, we can't do that. So it's actually a really, really important thing that we need to learn how to use more effectively.
Where can people go to find out more about this?
Well, we've recently released an ACCA guide to AI in finance, I believe that was released in August last year, which covers some of the ways in which we think AI is going to change the profession, but also some of our principles as an organization towards the adoption of AI and what we think needs to happen in order to take advantage of it. There's also the Digital Horizons
report, which was released in September, which touches on some of the practical ways in which AI is likely to impact the profession, as well as some of the different characteristics in terms of organizations that are leading the way in that regard. And it also touches on generative AI, the hot topic at the time, as to why is it exciting, why should we pay attention to it? Is
the hype real or is there substance behind it? And so this is available on the ACCA website and the P&;I, the policy and insights pages, and we have more work upcoming this year certainly that's going to cover AI in much greater depth.
Imtiaz, I want to come back to you. What do you think about these coming changes?
In coming years of time, there will be more work on the analytical side. You are going to see where are the gaps, where are the inefficiencies, where are the improvement areas. And then work on those rather than doing the hardcore laborious work on your own.
What do you hope for the future of AI?
As I mentioned earlier, I mean, AI is going to be one side. I mean, in the coming days you will seeing ChatGPT stores coming just like App Store and those kind of plugins are going to be integrated with the ChatGPT and other AI platforms. It is going to be integrated in every process. It's going to touch accounting side, finance side, analysis side, budgeting side. It's going to
touch every aspect within our profession. We have multiple lines within our profession. We have taxation, we have the accounting, we have audit. Within audit, we have internal audit, external audit. I mean, you name it. It's not going to be restricted on one pillar of the profession, it's going to
affect all. How? I'm sure it is going to be a positive change and that will be a very pleasant and welcoming towards the new generation who are aspiring to join the profession actually.
Thank you so much. Just from what you've both said, it makes me think that perhaps each generation we need to be thinking about becoming that purple person, having that balance between our accounting and finance skills, and also an awareness and ability within technology and that space as well. Just want to come to you both and ask, is AI going to take all of the accountancy jobs? Imtiaz, can I come to you first?
Yeah, sure. It's not going to replace humans at all. I am a big believer of enabling technology for helping the humans to do much more than they originally have been doing it before. It's going to be an enabler rather than destroyer. It's going to be as support towards
humans rather than replacing the humans. It's going to see that wherever there is repetitive nature of works, wherever there are laborious processes, and give more of analytical side and more of that side, which AI cannot do that. No, there's so much creativity, so much things which humans can do and AI cannot do, and AI will never be able
to do that side of the work. There is the gap we are going to fulfill, and that is going to be the side where we need to focus in the coming time.
And, Alistair, can I come to you with the same question, is AI going to take all of the accountancy jobs?
Yeah, look, I couldn't agree more. I mean, artificial intelligence is not human intelligence. They are different things and they are good at different things. AI is a huge enabler, as Imtiaz says, it's great for augmenting certain tasks or certain capabilities because it can extract insights from huge data sets that would take us ages to do. And it's great
for that. It's great for other things in terms of reviewing documents, producing text now with generative AI, there are great ways in which we can employ it, but it's not the same as the problem- solving capabilities than the accountant has because of the contextual knowledge that humans can apply because of the ... There's deep domain expertise and the experience they have in seeing the way things can go wrong.
So AI will actually need someone to monitor and provide oversight. And even if we think about those entry level jobs, which we could say are maybe most at risk in terms of reduction in the number that might be required, you still need someone there who understands the basic principles, how things work, and to oversee the system to make sure it's operating correctly, because machine learning AI is
not perfect either. This is where you get that purple person that you were talking about, that merging of skillsets, someone that has the domain expertise in accountancy but also more of a technical side. This is a huge opportunity in that area. I think what we're going to see
is actually a proliferation of specialisms. And the challenge we have right now is we can't actually see all the jobs that are going to be created, all the new areas where there will be new jobs or new roles that are required in order to better make use of
this technology, to extract more value for our organization. And that's something that is just going to evolve through practice, the work that Imtiaz is doing, and other people, they're developing those roles. And we're sitting back and we're trying to figure out with our crystal balls what's going to happen. But no, absolutely, it's not going to replace accountants,
it's not going to replace roles in wholesale. It will change roles, it will change what people do.
Thank you both for your answer to that question. That's fantastic. If someone at home is considering a career in accounting and finance, Alistair, I want to come to you first, what advice might you give them if they're considering it?
I mean, that's a really good question. It's a difficult question in the sense that the qualification, accountants do so many different roles. I think sometimes it's assumed that accountants do one thing, but actually I was sitting down with my colleagues the other day and we were trying to list all the roles that accountants do and we just kept going from page to page to page. And so I
think it's really exciting. If someone wants to understand how business works or how organizations operate, what is driving value within organizations, then I think this is a great career for anyone who has that kind of mindset, who maybe has that analytical mindset, has that problem- solving mindset, who really wants to get involved and make a difference.
Thank you. And, Imtiaz, can I come to you, your advice to someone who's considering a career in accounting and finance?
Look, this is an interesting question. I would like to see, no matter what technological developments, no matter what advancements are there, money is going to be there. It moved from hardcore cash to a number in the bank account, and then the coming years of time when we are going to introduce the blockchain technology, and then these will be something else. However, the concept of money is not going to
fade away because it has evolved over centuries actually. As long as there is money, there will always be need of accountants.
That's fantastic. Thank you so much. That's it for this episode of By All Accounts. Thank you Imtiaz and Alistair for joining us today. And that's it from the series. I hope it's cleared up some questions for you about working in the financial industries. With skills in accountancy finance you can work in any business anywhere and turn your passion into an exciting and rewarding career with an ACCA
qualification. You can sign up to find out more by heading to accaglobal. com/ be- you- anywhere. That link is also in the show notes. I'm Maiki Lynch and this has been By All Accounts.