The accounting world has incorporated waves of automation over the past decade to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. As we know, the science of accounting is centuries old, and until today, technology has not been able to replace the need for expert, knowledge-based decision-making accounting professionals. But, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies are challenging it. This is due to the ingenuity of AI, which is not only a technology that can draw conclusions from large amounts of data and adjust its actions based on those conclusions but also an intelligent system that can quickly learn in real-time and can be applied to an entire organization.
Here are a few insights on how AI could be useful for your accounting practice:
Smart invisible assistant
Smart assistants or bots might be able to give you a helping hand. They can act as the first line of customer contact and solve customer queries by providing information like details about their outstanding balance, current invoice amount, etc. AI systems can automatically manage the processes of gathering, sorting, and visualising relevant financial data in a way that helps the businesses to run more efficiently. In addition, smart assistant bots can be utilized for performing repetitive tasks thereby minimizing the employee’s daily workload. It also could serve as a vital tool in increasing the amount of readily available data at one’s fingertips.
Predictive and forecasting analysis
With the help of AI, you will be able to get a comprehensive insight for your business without the usual manual time-consuming process and number crunching behind report creation (like Cash Flow report). Also, AI integrated with the machine learning system enables it to learn from what you do with data and can make its own suggestions for humans, if not act entirely autonomously.
Accounting professionals can use AI to support business decision-making by deriving actionable insights from client demographics, past transactional data, and other external factors, all in real-time. It will enable us to not just look back but also to look forward with more clarity than ever before.
Financial data protection and control
AI can significantly reduce financial fraud and minimise accounting errors, often caused by human mistakes. For example, it can detect variances such as duplicate invoices or determine links between seemingly wrong payments and other known financial risks. It can also help to assign expenses to the correct categories, ensuring it doesn’t pay out for incorrect items and AI can handle all these data analyses at high speed. In this way, AI and accountants can work together to provide a more predictive, strategic service using the available data to pick up on potential issues before they arise.
As AI integrates tightly within the organization, information flows into the accounting mix, and accountants are empowered by the system to broaden their predictive skills beyond pure financial planning to the other integral aspects of the business. For example, if a manufacturer realizes an increase in supplier costs, the AI-powered accountant can quickly predict its likely impact on the business and accordingly advise the best action to address the potential shortfall before it becomes a critical problem.
In this Post-COVID world, to build a positive vision of the organization’s future, we need to develop a deep understanding of how artificial intelligence can solve accounting and business problems. Such an understanding shall certainly play a big role in addressing real-world challenges by helping to identify and enhance the skills that accounting professionals need to develop to work along with intelligent systems.
About the Author
Manickavel Muthusamy is the CEO & Co-Founder of Expert Solution Technologies Canada Inc. He is an Entrepreneur with in-depth understanding of Sales & Marketing of IT Services, Outsourcing and Global Delivery, worked with leading MNCs in multiple geographies including India, Canada and USA.