ITB December 2024/January 2025 - Magazine - Page 26
“Some people say we won’t need accountants
in the future and that the profession is
dying. I can’t see that happening.”
FUTURE SKILL S
Scott Copeland, University of South Australia
that about A$1 billion is spent on the development
of the technology every day, which has led to an
unprecedented take-up of the technology, giving
it the capacity to revolutionise business.
Walsh says while ChatGPT is a generic tool that
can answer almost any conceivable question,
the real excitement for accounting firms will be
around generative AI’s long-term ability to tackle
the specific. “You want something that speaks
to accounting, to finance, to insurance or to
whatever it is your business does. In the next
iteration, we’re going to see tools that focus
on particular workflows.”
Fellow UNSW professor Paul Andon believes
AI provides the potential for accountants to do
things faster and with fewer resources.
“The opportunity with AI is that it can actually
make us better at what we do.” To that end, he says
AI is more than just an efficiency tool.
“AI is actually a smart friend. If you’re going into
a meeting or if you’re going into a high-stakes
negotiation, you can use AI to help you prepare
to be a better version of yourself.”
Walsh expects AI and other tech tools to do more
of the four Ds — dirty, dull, difficult and dangerous
work — including monitoring emails and dealing
with data sets. “I see them very much as an assistant,
by taking away the time-consuming and repetitive
jobs, leaving us with more time to think about more
important things.”
For accountants and other professional services
firms concerned about confidentiality and ethical
matters, Walsh says AI will morph into enterprise
tools that will run on business machines and not
share data with open AI channels.
He notes that while these tools are “still a little
problematic” and that firms must be conscious
of erecting robust firewalls, he is confident that
accounting will thrive on the back of the rise
of AI and other technology advances.
“Yes, there will be some roles that get taken
over by technology in 10 or 20 years,” Walsh says.
26 INTHEBLACK Dec 2024/Jan 2025 SPECIAL EDITION
“But I suspect we’ll have probably just as many
accountants as today.”
A CHANGING WORK MODEL
In recent months, corporate giants such as
Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Tabcorp have
ordered workers to return to traditional offices,
casting doubt over the future of remote working.
Meanwhile, a KPMG survey reveals that more than
80 per cent of CEOs believe white-collar workers
will be back in the office five days a week by 2027.
Workplace expert Michelle Gibbings believes
remote working for accountants is here to stay,
but she expects a broader use of the term “flexible
work” to emerge. “It’s not just about the
flexibility of working from home, it’s also about
the flexibility around how you do the work and
when you do it.”
Gibbings expects greater reliance on “globally
distributed teams” — that is, a group of people
who work at the same company, but who may not
be physically in the same place or the same country.
These teams can work together at the same time,
in sprints, or separately, and offer the prospect
of faster, more efficient work. “We’ve got globally
distributed teams now, but we’ll probably see it
happen more frequently in the future,” Gibbings says.
She also envisages human employees having
AI agents working in tandem to help complete
everyday tasks. “You could have an AI agent ‘sitting’
in the room and they’re the ones who are capturing
all the information and data.”
The big change by 2035, according to Gibbings,
is that these autonomous intelligent systems are
likely to progress from doing just process-driven,
manual tasks to taking on more advanced duties.
Dunkley expects HR experts within accounting
firms to become more crucial as they assess the
value of the inputs from individuals, versus the
costs they incur on payrolls. Part of the analysis
will be appraising the costs of having a person
work from home two days per week.
