Artificial Intelligence will replace accountants

Although many people today talk of poverty alleviation, the fastest way and, perhaps, the only way of alleviating poverty was through enhancing skills development of the people.

These remarks were made by Prof. Ho Yew Kee, former Professor of Accounting and Head, Department of Accounting of the NUS Business School of Singapore, who said that 94 per cent of future accountants will become redundant owing to artificial intelligence.

Making the keynote address at an event in Colombo, he however noted that robots will not be able to replace people in most vocations.

He said jobs will increase globally in the lowest and the highest sector but the middle sector jobs will be vulnerable.

"To prevent retrenchment of the middle sector employees the Singaporean government has come up with 100 million dollars, a social safety net to re-train workers to prevent retrenchment so that the older workforce can stay productive. You cannot develop the economy unless you have a talented work pool," he said speaking at the launch of the new CMA Syllabus 2018 at the Taj Samudra hotel in Colombo last week.

President of the Certified Management Accountants (CMA) of Sri Lanka Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, said that, "although we are a national body the treatment that we receive in the country is anti-national. We always think that foreign things are good and various people are engaged in promoting various qualifications in the country by mentioning the US, UK, Australia qualifications and people are fooled by such qualifications".

Although the CMA was a national body incorporated by an act of parliament where decisions are taken by the cabinet of ministers to give recognition to the accountancy profession, the treatment it receives was negative.

CMA is a national qualification to the people which will enable them to become management accountants who can cater to the needs of the public and the private sector of the country. "The President and the Prime Minister of the country have lauded our efforts and we are grateful to them. As far as CMA was concerned we want to give the benefit to the people. Education is essential to bring people to a level where they understand the freedom given to them. Both the citizens and the private sector should take the initiative to provide education to people," he said.

Prof. Watawala said the new CMA syllabus will come into effect on March 2018 so that students will have one year to prepare for the examination.

The new syllabus has global education standards and views of the stakeholders have been taken into careful consideration in order to produce quality accountants who could thrive in the ever changing business environment. The objective of the CMA study programme is to produce management accountants endowed with capabilities competencies and with a global outlook required for organizations both locally and globally.

Canadian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Shelly Whiting addressing the gathering congratulated the syllabus reviewing team for a job done well.

She said, "It was obvious that a lot of consideration and effort has gone into creating a new syllabus that positions young people joining the profession to face corporate challenges in the future. I am proud that the CMA had made great strides in this regard."

She said the government of Canada and the Canadian Chartered Management Accountants has a long history with Sri Lanka. CMA Sri Lanka was set with technical assistance from the Chartered Management Accountants of Canada and with financial support from the Canadian International Development Agency.