Some experts think that by the year 2025, 3 million accounting jobs will be gone because of AI. Intelligent accounting software does a lot more than just analyze documents and pull out information. It can also do things like prepare taxes and balance accounts.
However, what does this imply for accountants? Is there a way to employ AI in our accounting department to improve efficiency?
Many businesses would attest that their accounting and financial procedures present constant obstacles. We’ll go through some of these issues and the ways in which AI can assist you in dealing with them.
Reducing Errors and Time
The biggest problem for accountants is that entering data and transactions (like payments, invoices, costs, and payroll) takes too long and causes too many mistakes.
Utilizing OCR (Optical Character Resolution) and NLP (Natural Language Processing), transactions may be handled in real-time to guarantee precise data entry and provide instantaneous access to up-to-date financial information.
Reduce the Risk of Fraud
The second issue is that businesses are vulnerable to fraud because of the nature of their day-to-day activities.
As a second solution, we can use machine learning algorithms to sort through an unlimited amount of data, and we can use artificial intelligence software to look at authorizations and spot fraudulent activity both in advance and in real time.
Increase Real-Time Reporting
Third, it is hard to get business insights from the millions of data points collected by different parts of a company.
AI software can process data exponentially quicker than a person. Artificial intelligence can sift through mountains of data to find patterns and insights.
Compliance
The fourth issue is that it takes a lot of effort and money to stay on top of all the regulations including tax and payroll. Furthermore, the cost of non-compliance is high.
With the help of natural language processing, software with artificial intelligence can look at invoices, receipts, and other financial data to find transactions that might be risky or questionable. AI in payroll can make sure that all taxes and deductions from employee paychecks are taken into account.
Ensure Employees are Following Procedure
It’s hard to tell if all workers are consistently following procedures.
The fifth idea is that AI could be used to keep track of and make sure that all organizational rules are followed. Artificial intelligence may check things like credit card purchases, trip bookings, and other non-financial data for compliance with business policies.
100% Audit Capability
It takes a lot of time to conduct an audit of financial transactions. An accountant looking at a random sample of a company’s transactions might not give a lot of confidence in some situations.
Sixth, AI audits all of a business’s financial transactions. This means that random sampling is no longer needed.
Conclusion
Accountants of today will need to be able to adapt, learn about what AI can do, and develop soft skills like communication, strategic analysis, and leadership. AI software will always need people who know how it works and what it can and cannot do.
In the future, accountants will need to be “AI-knowledgeable” and know their way around software to be able to use the many technologies available to automate their workflows and procedures. Even though technology may be able to turn raw data into insights that can be used to make decisions, experts will still be needed to take those insights, use them to make decisions, and explain those decisions to customers or other stakeholders.