Accounting Story of 2030

We live in a world that is rapidly moving into ‘futuristic’ technology. Google has already developed an artificial intelligence (AI) that can call people to book appointments. There is an AI designed to create music, and other systems are being developed to approximate human thought in the way they assess and analyse information. Let’s step into the office of a future accountant to imagine what accounting with AI might look like…

Jack starts his day with a quick chat to a little cube, referred to as Ali, on his desk. Ali clarifies to ensure it understands what Jack is wanting. There are several clients to chase up for information, some appointments to book, and preliminary assessments to be reviewed for some new clients. His mind briefly wanders to think of Fiona, who moved to a position at that fancy new firm down the road. Their little cubes are customisable holographic images. Intrigued by the idea he briefly wonders if there is any justification to squeeze it into the budget.

“You have a call.” Ali interrupts. “It’s Melissa, from Better Butter Bakers. She’s confused about the financial recommendations made for her. I’m uploading my recommendations now.”

Jack smiles as he recalls this particular client. A meeting with her means enjoying some delicious fresh bakery treats. He accepts the call and the next moments happen quickly. Financial reports appear on the screen in front of him, along with a list of Melissa’s comments, and links that he can use to quickly jump to the information he may need while he talks. As they talk he winds his mind over her business. He can see the suggestions Ali has made, but he can read concerns that Melissa isn’t voicing, as well as the ones she is stating. As remarkable as it is to have Ali helping out, Jack is aware of the limitations the AI has in really understanding his clients. Utilising a combination of Ali’s suggestions, his own thoughts, and what he hears from Melissa, Jack starts to formulate a plan.

“I have some ideas to run past you. Let’s set up a meeting.” Jack says, after feeding back some of Melissa’s concerns to ensure he’s on the right track.

“Great!” Says Melissa. “I just need to check my schedule, so give me a call in 10 minutes.”

Jack instructs Ali to call Melissa in 10 minutes to set up the meeting with her and moves on to reviewing his workload for the day.

An hour later Jack is checking in on his team. He reminds the new recruit Ronald, that he needs to be double checking the AI entries, not just saying the job is done once the computer has made the entries. Jack adds a few comments to Ali’s review of the Smith Family group and asks Stacey to follow these up. Then he checks on Ashley’s weekly training schedules and asks for a week to be added in to brush everyone up on the risks of over-reliance on the AI.

Jack reflects on how easy it has become to rely too much on technology. He remembers how Amy, his mentor, drummed into him the idea that these systems are only as good as the coding and ongoing information that is put into them. No matter how efficient the tech became, it was still just a checkbox. Ticking the boxes to reach a logical conclusion based on the information that came it. It could even flag information that looked out of place. But there was always that human nuance needed to see beyond the limitations of the Artificial Intelligence, and the human touch that an AI could only mimic.

Lights flick on Jack’s computer screen and Ali tells him that he has three new clients. Their accounts have been through Ali’s preliminary processing and initial reports are being presented. Several red flags are marked for review. Jack knows from experience that there will also be a range of off-book information that the client has forgotten about or not known how to incorporate into their own bookkeeping AI system. There will be categorised expenses that require further dissection to work out if they are genuinely business expenses or private expenses. And of course, there is the need to really understand the business and solidify their relationship with that face to face presence. He checks Ali’s preliminary allocation of the clients to his staff and makes a couple of adjustments before approving. Ronald, for instance, still needs time to understand what’s going on underneath the computer processing before he is ready to tackle the Hill job.

As we move away from this brief glimpse of Jack and his office, we sense that AI has taken over a chunk of the mundane tasks. However, the backbone of the industry still relies on people skills, a personal touch, and the instincts that are only honed with experience. Artificial Intelligence is a tool that will streamline the workflow and automatically raise flags that don’t check the boxes. But it is still just a tool.