The accounting industry faces a significant staffing shortage, yet a recent report suggests that widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) to address this issue remains limited.
Have you experienced difficulty in finding a qualified accountant for your business? You’re not alone. The profession is grappling with a shortage of professionals. The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants estimates that the number of new CPAs fell by nearly half between 1990 and 2021.
With the rise of generative AI, from companies like OpenAI to Google and Microsoft, automation appears promising in number-crunching and bookkeeping. A report from Wolters Kluwer, a global information services provider, indicates considerable interest in AI automation among accountants, but the industry still has work to do before adoption becomes mainstream.
The “Future Ready Accountant Report,” released in January, revealed that only 27 percent of tax and accounting professionals currently use generative AI in their work. Another 22 percent plan to implement it within the coming year. Notably, small, medium, and large firms all identified talent recruitment and retention as their primary challenges.
Cathy Rowe, a senior vice president at Wolters Kluwer, stated, “I don’t think AI and technology is going to come in and take away the need for a CPA, whether it’s an audit workflow or a tax workflow. There’s still a level of judgment that’s always required. There’s always going to be that gray zone, and so the technology will be an enabler for that.”
She further emphasized the importance of leveraging AI to identify anomalies in audits or automate the more routine tasks in accounting. The Wolters Kluwer report found that while only a quarter of the respondents have AI policies in place, 53 percent view AI’s use in the industry favorably. The top use cases cited include AI productivity assistants, AI-enabled research, and data extraction through document scanning.
Concerns regarding AI adoption in the tax industry include privacy, accuracy, and cost, especially given the high stakes involved in tax filing. A mistake could potentially lead to an audit.
Rowe commented, “Accountants, by definition, they’re change-averse, they’re risk-averse. When you think of an auditor, for example, some of that is fair because there’s regulatory concerns in terms of, how do they form an audit opinion that’s free from material misjudgment? How can they rely on technology to make sure … that the amount owing is correct, or that you’re providing the right advisory?”
She continued, “In terms of what will help them get over that, I think it’s really making sure that firms themselves have private governance and that they have policies; that they really understand their data and how they can use that in a responsible, human-centric way.”
