AI could mean fewer accountancy jobs but is also taking over some of the more mundane tasks
Owen Hewitt hopes AI will take over the mundane tasks in accountancy.
Mr Hewitt is hoping that AI will take over some of the more tedious parts of the job.
"These can remove the burden of the more time-consuming tasks, like analysis of financial data," says Mr Hewitt.
AI is increasingly being used for routine and time-consuming tasks such as summarising documents, creating content, drafting documentation, advanced searching, analytics and insight and knowledge management - often work done by more junior accountancy staff.
"When you look at some of the tasks that auditors were doing - some of the boring, mundane tasks around churning data and manipulating it into a format where you can then actually do something valuable with it - that's where artificial intelligence can play a really big part," says Matthew Campbell, audit chief technology officer for KPMG UK.Given that auditing is a relatively low-margin business, there's concern that the more widespread use of AI could lead to a loss of jobs.
According to a KPMG survey, four in 10 senior audit professionals expect that the increased efficiency that AI can bring will lead to a reduction in the size of auditing teams.
"Generally, the nature of a junior accountant's role is likely to change more towards systems management - overseeing AI powered software and databases - and relationship management, and away from the traditional reconciliations and ledgers work," he says.
The UK's accountancy regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, carried out 19 investigations in the 2022-2023 financial year, slapping fines of £40.5 million on auditing firms and their clients for audit failings.
As a result, auditing firms are now under great scrutiny; and to tighten up their procedures, many are turning to AI."As generative AI plays a more prominent role in contributing to first drafts of content, the human auditor role can be elevated to focus on areas of judgment and challenge," says Marc Bena, digital audit leader at PwC UK. "The ability to analyse data at a much larger scale also means we can perform better risk assessments and analysis."
86% of auditing staff agreed that AI helps cut down time on repetitive task - and 83% said they'd be more inclined to stay at a company with AI initiatives in place.