This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 27, 2024 - June 2, 2024

With the accounting industry set to be disrupted by artificial intelligence (AI) in the next five to 10 years, accountants need to embrace and adapt their jobs to the technology in order to stay relevant.

Professor Dr David Asirvatham, executive dean of the faculty of innovation and technology at Taylor’s University, said while he does not believe that the accounting profession will be completely replaced by machines, most of the tasks and roles will change.

“If you continue to practise what you are doing now, you will be replaced. But if you transform by embracing emerging technologies, then you will move far [in this profession]. [Those who do] will do even better, have higher productivity, more income and be competitive,” he said at the inaugural Malaysia Institute of Accounting (MIA) Accounting and Financial Technology Showcase 2024 (MIA AFT 2024).

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2023 report said the largest losses are expected in administrative roles and in traditional security, factory and commerce roles. Organisations surveyed predict 26 million fewer jobs by 2027 in record-keeping and administrative roles, including cashiers and ticket clerks, data entry, accounting, bookkeeping and payroll clerks.

Features such as predictive analytics, data analytics and AI-based auditing are becoming increasingly important. In fact, David said AI-based auditing tools can audit an entire population rather than merely a sample size.

“These tools provide data and you will be able to advise the client on a higher level by using that data and facts, then offer insight into the company. I would think that, to some extent, you will become a data scientist.”

David said there are also organisations that impose restrictions on technology, telling employees that the use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT is prohibited. He advised against putting such prohibitions in place and suggested instead that they implement a company policy on technology usage to ensure it is correctly adopted.

“Embracing technology is key. We need to learn every single technology that we need to use,” he said.

Accounting job scopes also need to be redesigned in order for them to stay relevant and the hiring process needs to include those with tech or data science backgrounds.

“Every single vacancy in your company is crucial for its transformation and it begins by selecting the right people for your organisation. Reskilling is also important to introduce new products. You need to rescale people quickly so that they can adopt technology into your firm,” David said, adding that companies also need to allocate resources to do these things.

Speaking from a practitioner’s perspective, LedgerBrains founder and Morison LC PLT managing partner Steven Chong said the “ABCD” of technology (AI, blockchain, cybersecurity, and cloud and data analytics) was first talked about six years ago and is as relevant as ever. While priorities have shifted, the key technology today is analytics, although everyone has jumped on the AI bandwagon.

Lim Fen Nee, chairman of the MIA’s Digital Technology Implementation Committee, said in accounting today, a lot of data comes through and it is important for accountants to learn how to interpret it in various ways because there is a lot more information to digest to gain more insights.

“Visualisation tools can help present scenarios in many ways and you can even do sensitivity analysis, which helps a lot, especially with the decision-makers,” she said.

While normal tasks like research can be done via ChatGPT, the information is not completely reliable and needs to be verified.

MIA AFT 2024 also attracted accounting students and university graduates.

Lim said the MIA is trying to focus on encouraging students to come up with acctech (portmanteau of accounting and technology) solutions that can be applied to the business world. 

She added that the MIA works with the Malaysian Qualification Agency on the revision of syllabuses to incorporate more tech elements and modules.

“I think marrying accounting with tech [syllabuses] would attract more talent to the industry. I saw the value proposition in this many years ago and based on my experience, it will continue to do so,” she said.

As the conversation on generative AI is a crucial one, MIA is also looking to put together a committee with AI expertise to provide solutions and programmes its members need. The industry is also seeing a trust issue emerging with acctech as the safeguarding of data integrity remains a top concern and priority. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Lim said accountants are the guardians of financial statements and when the financial data is used in generative AI systems.

“When talking about data integrity, the conversation is a bit more complex because accountants have a greater role to play in this scenario, especially involving AI. While it is a tool, we need to know how to integrate it into a company’s process flow and how it facilitates decision-making.”

Another element of trust concerns the reliability of data. Lim explained that while generative AI tools can facilitate actions such as conducting research, there needs to be a way to verify the data.

“The conversation around data sources is linked to the reliability of data. Accountants are hesitant to use this data because they are not sure if it is fake or usable,” she said. “Hence, when an accountant applies technology or outsources it, he needs to ensure that he has full trust in the system before doing so. And that’s where the role of the accountant will be elevated as it gives greater prominence to data integrity.”

Cost still remains a pain point for most companies to adopt technology as there is an upfront cost. Lim said while technology can improve their workflow, accountants still need to think about reskilling themselves when it comes to using these technologies.

“People are generally resistant to change to begin with,” she noted, hastening to add, “not that it has anything to do with AI or generative AI.”

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