As generative artificial intelligence (AI) takes over more mundane and repetitivetasks, some accounting jobs are at risk of disappearing, AccountingToday reported. But the accountants whose jobs are replaced become free to perform more high-value work.
Previous generations experienced similar disruptions due to advances intechnology. Jim Bourke, managing director of the advisory practice at Withum,recalled that a large part of his duties as a young accountant involved writingup financial information—books, statements, reports and other records.
"So, the historical role of accountants preparing the monthly books andrecords—that has tremendously changed because of the advent of systems likeQuickBooks Online, Xero and NetSuite," he said in an interview with Accounting Today.
One job that is now obsolete is the audit associate, a person who manuallypored over data samplings and documented the process. While the title may stillexist in some places, the job is now done by advanced analytics tools,including AI-powered audit software.
So-called “crunchers”—those who prepare and process accounting data, suchas bookkeepers, clerks, data enterers and reconcilers—may also fall by thewayside.Anyone involved in basic bookkeeping tasks that rely on scale to generate appreciable amounts of revenue, such as accounts receivable or payable specialists, financial report compilers and payroll professionals, may also be considered a cruncher.
"I would not want to be getting into the data entry career inaccounting, because of automation and bank fees,” said Jeff Phillips, whoco-founded accounting recruiter Accounting Fly and is CEO of Padgett BusinessServices, in an interview with Accounting Today. “I know AI is such a buzzword and that is what a lotof people talk about, but that will automate away any kind of data entry. Samewith accounts receivable and payable clerks and how they're getting automatedout of a job.”
Crunchers who are early in their careers have the opportunity to retain an accounting job if they adapt. They have more room to acquire new skills and pivot. But longtime"rock stars" who are extremely good at these data input andprocessing tasks “will be in trouble because those folks love doing whatthey're doing, but [there is] a limit on their capacity,” said Jody Grunden,partner and virtual CFO practice leader with Summit CPA, in an interview. “We'vegot several individuals in firms who don't want to be a CFO. They love beingthat senior-level accountant because it fulfills what they want to do, but astechnology improves those folks will be limited in their value and willeventually be replaced.”
Based on what he has seen as a recruiter, Phillips told Accounting Todaythat it will be more of a slow attrition than a sudden wave of firings.
"Anything that seems like basic tracking and reconciling information isvery much ripe for disruption, such as payroll, all those low-level servicesthat firms breached, started to pursue because they were looking for other waysto increase profits besides audit and tax, and they will have a day ofreckoning where I don't need your firm to do this stuff for me,” said ChrisVanover, leader of accounting talent solutions provider CPA Club, in aninterview.
Phillips of Padgett Business Services said that any bookkeeping job not at risk from technologywill be at risk from offshoring instead.
Beyond basic bookkeeping, another area that experts generally agreed waseventually on its way out was the process of gathering client data to fill andfile a basic individual tax return.
“This doesn't mean we won't need tax people—there's a lot of businessesout there and a lot of complicated individuals that need advice,” Phillips said. “So,the tax individuals who come into our profession will serve a greater role byadvising our clients on positions to take on hoping to minimize their taxliability. How are they going to do that? By leveraging generative AI, byleveraging technology, to give them that knowledge to get them in a betterposition.”
Generative AI will soon make research, another major task for accountants, obsoleteas well, said Bourke of Withum.
"The area that's really ripe for that has to do with the amount of timewe spend doing tax research, the amount of time we spend doing audit research,on technical issues,” he said “Now, through the use of generative AI, we havetremendously streamlined the process. So a young staff accountant who todaywould be tasked with that research could now be in another position ofreviewing the memos prepared by generative AI."
Vanover pointed to the shrinking number of firms offering audit services asevidence that auditors may go from one of the more common specializations inthe profession to something more niche. Many smaller firms have exited theauditing space completely, he said, because they can't compete with largerplayers who can drop millions on AI and machine learning tools.
With all of this in mind, any current or aspiring cruncher may want to thinkseriously about reskilling in order to better understand how technology works with theprofession so that their skills can remain relevant.
Mike Policicchio, an audit partnerat Ernst & Young, told Accounting Today that there are still some places for crunchers. Whilesome routine tasks can be automated, not all of them can be, he told AccountingToday. For those that can't be automated, there is the need for a person, ideally one who is comfortablewith repetitive, routine work, he said.
Jack Castonguay, vice president of learning and development with CPA examprep company Surgent, and a Hofstra University accounting professor, toldAccounting Today that the jobs of the future, even the ones focused on routinetasks, will require tech literacy.
A student at one of his seminars told him that she didn't want to learn"this tech stuff," saying, “I am an accounting major and I want tolearn accounting.”
"And I came back to say accounting is now tech. If you don't have thetech skills or the ability to learn tech skills, you will be left out in thecold," he told Accounting Today. "We can no longer say, 'You handlethe tech work and I handle the tax work. You handle the data analysis and I'llfocus on this accounting standard.' It doesn't work like that anymore.”
