Introduction:
In this digital era, Artificial intelligence is being done for almost every Industry and Now it is significantly affecting the world of Accounting and Finance also. AI-enabled systems and virtual bookkeeping techniques are very powerful and improving quickly today and that’s the reason the outputs provided by these systems are extremely accurate and superseding the human efforts. In this article, we will discuss this different form of intelligence and to develop an understanding of ways by which humans and computers can work together.
What is Artificial Intelligence?:
Before getting deep into the discussion, let’s shortly discuss what actually artificial intelligence is. In simple terms, the capability of machines or computer programs to think, learn and work like humans. The same is in the field of accounting and finance that Human efforts will be replaced by Artificial machines and the task can be delivered with more accuracy and timely.
How can Accountants use AI capabilities to serve their clients better?:
As we all aware that Artificial Intelligence techniques such as machine learning are not new in this fast-changing technology world but still if we talk about AI in the field of accounting and finance, despite of advancement it is still at in early age. By using artificial intelligence, various accounting and business problems can be solved. Some of the benefits of using AI techniques by accountants are discussed below:
- Help in Decision Making: Apart from general accounting, many business advice could also need to be given by the professionals to their clients and stakeholders for decision making which most of the time requires deep analysis and for that deep analysis accountant needs both financial and non-financial data. And this data can be procured by using various data mining tools and they can also generate new insights by analyzing them and in this way a better decision-making suggestion can be provided.
- Manage a large volume of data: Handling a large volume of data along with maintaining its quality is important to make Artificial intelligence successful. If the accountant is manually maintaining the accounting records then along with consumption of time there could be the chances of errors also but on the other hand, if all these activities are being conducted by artificial machines with minimal human intervention then these data can be handled more efficiently along with timely completion of projects.
- Time-Saving due to automation: As we all know if work is being done by the machines instead of humans then due to automation there will be less time consuming as most of the repetitive and time-consuming tasks can be avoided to be done by humans. This will lead to error-free and timely delivery of accounting projects also leads to client satisfaction.
- Removal of Geographical Barriers: As we know cloud accounting is also to the large extent a part of artificial intelligence techniques. Virtual accounting leads to widening the scope of the accounting services by professionals towards international boundaries as this can be performed without any physical meeting and both clients and the accountants can perform their tasks remotely and professionals can deliver their work even without personally meeting with the client.
- Focus moreover strategical tasks: As most of the accounting functions seem to be automated in the coming future whether it is payroll, procurement, expense management or audit then it may finally lead and require a focus of accountants over the Strategical portion or which requires professional judgment which machines cannot provide. Conclusively we can say that the accountant can focus on more productive activities rather than doing repetitive tasks and try to grab some more business opportunities when he would be the focus on other factors also due to saving of time in automated processes.
Conclusion:
From all the above discussion we can conclude that Artificial intelligence and cloud accounting will cover the accounting industry to the large extent and that will overall results in the timely and efficient delivery of projects to the client and ultimate client satisfaction. There could be a concern that will result in job losses, but it is actually not. If accounting processes are automated then of course accountant can focus on core areas rather than doing repetitive tasks and this may result in getting some other business opportunities to them also. So, we can finally say Artificial intelligence will grab the accounting industry and it is ultimately beneficial for both accountants and clients.