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Will the accounting profession survive technological advances?
Ten years ago, opening bank accounts required customers to meet the frontliner staff directly. Today, such services are available at our fingertips thanks to tech advancement.
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According to some research, the aspects of the work in accounting work areas, which are time-consuming and routine, have also shifted to full automation, leaving more time for investigative jobs for humans. (Shutterstock/-)
D
isruptive technologies such as robotic process automation, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and advanced analytics are taking over the role of humans in completing repetitive and mundane tasks. This is a clear sign that jobs requiring few cognitive skills are ceasing to exist.
Accounting is no exception. Working in accounting today is different from working in accounting 10 years ago. For example, one job that accounting graduates aspire to is bank work. Ten years ago, opening bank accounts required customers to meet frontline staff directly. Today, such services are available at our fingertips thanks to tech advancement.
Other accounting work areas are auditing, tax preparation and payroll. According to some research, the aspects of the work in these fields, which are time-consuming and routine, have also shifted to full automation, leaving more time for investigative jobs for humans.
For example, a 2015 study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that accountants, especially accounting clerks and bookkeepers, were the most at-risk jobs to automation in the next 20 years. As might be expected, the reason is that robotics are more effectively and accurately able to perform simple and menial tasks than humans.
These results are consistent with the research conducted by Oxford University in collaboration with National Public Radio (NPR). Through an interactive tool they investigated the disruptive implications of technology for professional services employees. The results show that more than 90 percent of accounting and auditing jobs will be automated in the next 20 years. For some tax-preparation roles, the likelihood of job automation even reaches almost 99 percent.
What is even more nerve-wracking is research evidence that recent advances in AI and machine learning have successfully created algorithms capable of outstripping white-collar workers.
For example, researchers from the Brookings Institution used a novel technique developed by a Stanford University researcher to investigate the disruptive effect of AI on jobs in 22 major occupational groups. They found that the disruptive effect of AI is targeting the white-collar professional class and not blue-collar workers. The business occupational group is the fifth-highest position on the list.
