Automation replace accountants?

Will AI/Automation replace my accountants?

For now, I say no. I think the initial impact we see will be retraining. These tools are not “there” yet and will still require significant human intervention. They’ll also require time for businesses to adapt to how they operate and get comfortable trusting their output.

Along the way we’ll see some bad solutions and bad outputs, which will lower trust. But over time we’ll learn from these issues and see them slowly start replacing previously manual processes.

So, if you’re an accountant, what does this mean?

Here is what I think the future of accounting looks like:

1. Accountants will consult. AI can’t make decisions for you and it will miss the additional human context. Accountants who build an internal or external “consulting practice” will be in high demand.

2. Accountants will specialize. In a world of powerful AI tools, generalist become less valuable. The AI tools can and will replace generalized knowledge, but specialized knowledge (where consultation is needed) will always be in-demand. I’m not going to use AI alone to analyze an acquisition target. Great M&A attorneys and accountants bring way more to the table than AI ever good.

3. Accountants will become AI-aided. Quit looking at AI as a threat. If you embrace the tools, you can instead focus on higher-value tasks. Those who know how to work the software/AI are even more valuable than they were before.

4. Accountants will still be a face and listening ear. No matter how much we love AI and automation, humans trust humans the most. Maybe there will be less jobs, but if you can master the interpretation and communication of the numbers, you will always find a job.