ANALYSIS | Artificial Intelligence
How artificial intelligence is set to transform the accounting industry
Some may see AI as a threat to the accountancy profession but Lee Murphy argues it as a real opportunity both for individuals and businesses
Artificial intelligence has already begun to impact on our everyday lives and the technological revolution we are witnessing is set to transform the accounting profession – and the relationship between accountants and SMEs .
That changing relationship will benefit accountants and businesses , heralding new ways of working and putting our service and knowledge at the heart of business development and strategy for the good of SMEs and the wider economy .
There is no doubt that we are on a journey that is going in only one direction . Sophisticated accounting software and systems will change our role as artificial intelligence ( AI ), smart machine learning and increased automation takes over traditional accountancy roles such as bookkeeping and data entry .
And the direction we are heading is already being well signposted . As bookkeeping moves ever further towards automation and out of human hands , cloudbased software companies are planning to eliminate coding invoices for payment .
This move is being reported as one of the biggest changes ever to happen to accounting , and is predicted to save small businesses thousands of hours .
In the future , the way businesses will look after their figures and carry out transactions is set to look very different from today , with spreadsheets consigned to the history books .
In this fully automated , AI-driven future , where coding work and data entry will no longer be required , tax returns , invoicing and payment will all be carried out by smart machines with not a single human hand involved in the process .
As this technological revolution rolls on we will eventually see cashless tills in shops and the creation of national and international invoicing networks business will register with – smart machines ‘ talking ’ to each other to get payments processed and paid automatically , again with no human involvement .
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