Lara Justus

A modern accountant’s biggest fear is the possibility of being replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Ironically, accountants turned to the source of their fear and asked ChatGPT to provide an argument for why increasing AI use will not threaten accountant’s jobs in the future. ChatGPT itself acknowledged that artificial intelligence has the capability to compute standardized tasks, but humans have skills that surpass the abilities of AI.1 To have a successful career, accountants need to develop skills that will distinguish themselves from AI within their first five years of employment. The only way to remain relevant is to cultivate skills that AI does not possess. Now more than ever, accountants need to focus on critical thinking, informational literacy, and interpersonal abilities to effectively use AI and avoid falling behind the technology curve. Why Worry About AI? We live in a world where it is common for technology to grow and improve at a rapid pace, but the recent emergence of generative AI has rocked the world— sparking both controversy and applause. The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) website describes AI as technology that allows computers to simulate human intelligence and perform tasks that would otherwise call for human intervention.2 The Business Research Company is a global firm that specializes in consulting and market research. They tracked how much the global accounting market has spent on AI each year in billions of dollars, and predicted how much the spending will increase in the coming years.3 Figure 1 shows their findings. Notice how the amount spent on AI in 2022 was $2.18 billion and the amount predicted to be spent on AI in 2028 is $23.51 billion. The difference between the amount of money spent on AI in 2022 to the predicted amount for 2028 is around $21 billion. AI usage in the accounting industry is going to grow rapidly in coming years. Not only is money spent on AI predicted to increase over time, but the amount spent year to year is also expected to drastically increase. Figure 1 shows that the amount spent on AI from 2022 to 2023 increased by about $1.06 billion, whereas the expected growth from 2027 to 2028 is $7.82 billion. If current trends are any indication, a continuing exponential increase will occur in the amount of money spent on accounting AI globally. The predicted compound annual growth rate is 48%. Increasing usage of AI in the global accounting market is astonishing. Clearly, accountants can expect AI to remain and likely become more prevalent in the future. Rather than avoiding AI, the time has come to learn how to keep up with its rapid growth. Developing skills that set accountants apart from AI will be increasingly needed as AI takes over the completion of routine accounting tasks.

A modern accountant’s biggest fear is the possibility of being replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Ironically, accountants turned to the source of their fear and asked ChatGPT to provide an argument for why increasing AI use will not threaten accountants’ jobs in the future. ChatGPT itself acknowledged that artificial intelligence has the capability to compute standardized tasks, but humans have skills that surpass the abilities of AI.¹