ITB December 2024/January 2025 - Magazine - Page 27
“There are explicit and implicit costs. The cost
is potentially going to be that you don’t have
the same office relationships, but it depends
on personalities. Given these complexities, I think
HR will be a big area of growth in the next 10 years
for accounting.”
POSITIVE OUTLOOK
HOW ROLES WILL CHANGE
Some roles and responsibilities will change
when 2035 dawns, and Nguyen Tan Quan ASA,
senior associate at PwC Vietnam, hopes to be
part of the evolution.
Quan aims to be in a role equivalent to
a CFO within 10 years, but he expects the
job may well be “rebranded” as a CVO
or similar, and will require a combination
of typical technical accounting skills and
a digital transformation mindset.
“A new style of leadership will be needed
to steer organisations on the path of innovation,”
he says.
Irrespective of a changing profession,
Quan believes the future role of accountants
is secure in Vietnam as there is a statutory
requirement for non-micro enterprise
businesses to appoint a chief accountant
to manage and audit an entity’s finances.
“No matter how the accounting role shifts,
in the next decade in Vietnam, accountants
will remain critical for all firms.”
Quan says PwC Vietnam is already seeing
a glimpse of the future via ChatPwC — a GenAI
chatbot that streamlines complex tasks and
fosters collaboration between internal teams
and clients. It assists the firm to stay up to date
on regulatory changes.
“I think it’s helped us to improve our
productivity,” he notes.
As he ponders the future for accountants,
Santosa has no doubt that “continuous learning”
will be key if accounting firms and practitioners
want to flourish in a fast-changing world.
“Lifelong learning is not a new concept, but I
think it’s going to be even more prevalent for
the next 10 years and more,” he says.
For graduates and young accountants now
weighing up their options for a successful future,
Djajadikerta recommends roles that blend
technology, strategy and sustainability skills.
“Specialising in sustainability accounting or ESG
reporting will be highly valuable as companies focus
on environmental and social responsibility,” he says.
“Data-analysis roles, such as data scientists in finance,
will also be crucial as AI and big data drive financial
decision-making.”
Nguyen Tan Quan ASA, senior associate at PwC
Vietnam notes that AI is “undoubtedly the next big
thing for the profession” but adds that many AI
models are built on historical data.
“This can sometimes mean they’re not always
aligned with the most current context, which could
affect the accuracy of our decisions,” he says.
“In my view, AI should augment our work, not replace
accountability. We own the numbers, no matter how
they are generated.”
As a parting message, Dunkley urges accountants
in the next decade and beyond to keep “aspiring
to inspire people”.
“We should be inspiring the business community
to show them that, ‘Yes, you can do this, and this
is how you do it’,” she says. ●
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