Accountants told to brace for emergence of AI, blockchain

The association of certified public accountants said there is a need for the industry to brace for rapid automation which is threatening jobs that use repetitive human tasks.

Maria Victoria Españo, chairperson and CEO of top auditing firm P&A Grant Thornton, said accountancy is one of the sectors facing digital disruption.

“In an era of disruption, it is inevitable that some of our functions will soon be done by machines. But I believe that integrity and excellence are some of the virtues that can distinguish us humans from robots,” she said.

Españo, who is also national board of director and chair of the Metro Manila Regional Council of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), said promoting integrity and quality have never been as important as today for the accounting and auditing profession.

The industry continues to discuss the increasing use of devices using artificial intelligence (AI) that can perform routine functions of accountants such as performing automatic coding of accounting data entries.

Rather than a threat, however, PICPA believes AI could free up the accounting professional from the menial tasks of recording and bookkeeping and enable them to become valuable and influential advisors to toplevel decision-making.

Accountants could also harness machine-enabled data analytics for sharing past and predictive insights that could help their businesses and clients in automating processes and workflows.

She pointed out machine learning and cognitive computing could also be effectively utilized in the audit’s performance of oversight and governance functions.

“Artificial intelligence is seen to enhance the identification of fraud and the improvement of audit quality. The automation of routine tax compliance can reduce costs and speed up turnaround time, but also lead to fewer errors and greater standardization,” Españo added.

Another disruptor is the use of distributed ledgers or blockchain that could assist in ensuring that accountants and auditors’ recordkeeping capabilities are applied with increased transparency and integrity, without having to rely on only one centralized data storage.

Blockchain technology offers a new way to store and share data kept in dispersed sites, which can be safely and securely accessed by auditors and relevant third parties, eliminating the work of accounting professionals in consolidating and validating data.