Weekly Business Insights 02/28/2024
The (Very) Emerging Role Of AI In The Accounting Industry. How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming the Financial Services Industry. The future of intelligent accounting.
The (Very) Emerging Role Of AI In The Accounting Industry
The profession’s biggest firms - like EY and PwC - are deploying AI technology in their auditing and financial review procedures in order to identify irregular transactions or patterns of inconsistency. The technology could ultimately be used to perform a much deeper level of auditing analysis that can offer both investors and financial statement readers a more accurate and complete picture of a company's finances and at a more affordable cost.
AI really has a ways to go before it’s figuring out accounting problems. Which is why you’re not seeing a lot of AI in the technical capabilities of these accounting applications. Even with all the hubris around the “transformative impact” of AI, what’s telling to me is that these new AI "features" really aren't featured very much in these companies products.
For now, accountants and financial professionals should be paying attention and getting ready. We need to prioritize cleaning up our databases, going to vendor conferences, demanding demonstrations and understanding exactly how these tools will help us do things quicker and more affordably. That way when prime time comes, we’ll be good and ready.
How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming the Financial Services Industry
AI is an area of computer science that emphasizes on the creation of intelligent machines that work and perform tasks like humans. These machines are able to teach themselves, organise and interpret information to make predictions based on this information. It has therefore become an essential part of technology in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Industry, and is changing the way products and services are offered.
The Financial Services Industry has entered the Artificial Intelligence (AI) phase of the digital marathon, a journey that started with the advent of the internet and has taken organisations through several stages of digitalisation. The emergence of AI is disrupting the physics of the industry, weakening the bonds that have held together the components of the traditional financial institutions and opening the door to more innovations and new operating models.
The future of intelligent accounting
Data is key to driving digital transformation success. About 75 percent of leading companies agree that effective enterprise data usage can radically change their business model.4 By differentiating important data from the noise, accounting leaders can enhance their organization’s ability to plan, prioritize initiatives, and respond more effectively.
By leveraging technology platforms like Workday, CAOs can extract value from financial and operational data efficiently, enabling multi-dimensional financial reporting. This allows leaders to make informed decisions and respond to stakeholder needs in a prompt manner—making accounting an even stronger partner to the business.
Technology platforms like Workday can enable finance and accounting to drive stronger business outcomes with efficient enterprise resource planning (ERP). Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can also help speed up accounting processes, detect anomalies, and deliver actionable insights—giving CAOs more time to focus on value-added tasks.