Artificial Intelligence within Accounting Practices

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is regarded as the most significant and advanced technologies in the recent times. The accounting databases have become as one of the major storehouses of information based on different forms of transactions based on accounting systems. Cohen and Feigenbaum 2014 have discussed that in the age of technological innovations, the sector of accounting is not limited to the traditional methods. In the recent times, the computer technology is widely used within accounting systems. The various forms of business organizations faces various kinds of complex events that could not be used for process management. The various accountants have embraced the impacts of automation based technologies that have helped in the improvement in the field of accounting systems. According to Wenger (2014), in the future decades, the intelligent systems would be taking over much of the decision that need to be taken by humans. Accountants and various business sector would embrace the technological aspects of AI and the benefits supported by them. The use of AI would also help accounting systems to reimagine various kinds of opportunities and thus invest different kinds of business and accounting solutions.

With the major rise of technical developments, it has been seen that AI has been in use within various areas of accounting sector. In the present times, the most common usage of AI involves the use of expert systems. There are also some kinds of non-rule bases systems of expert and neural networks that have been in major form of usage. Dalkir (2013) have stated that external auditing is another kinds of sector that has been the centre of attraction of AI. In this form of systems, the expert based systems are primarily developed and then are used by firms in order to plan different kinds of audits over the systems.

Taxation is another form of domain, which has been majorly affected with the development of improved form of AI systems. In the area of taxation, the use of AI systems would be mainly be used for international, corporate, individual tax planning, compliance checks, maintenance of tax status and uniform capitalization. Steels and Brooks (2018) have stated that on the financial part, the different firms based on accounting mainly make varied use of the different AI tools for providing various kinds of financial planning advices to their clients. The banks also make use of AI software and tools for accessing the loan applications and thus be able to grant them as per the needs of the applicants.

Contributions made by AI

There are several kinds of small and large sectors within accounting that also make use of management accounting systems. There are some companies in accounting sector that employ the intelligent systems in order to provide various forms of assistance based on financial planning to their employees. Bond and Gasser (2014) have stated that based on the review of the accounting systems of different organizations, it has been seen that American Express employs an intelligent AI systems in order to authorize the purchases made by customers. The AI systems employed by IBM helps in supporting the field service representatives based on the placing of bids. AI is now also used by different government agencies based on the welfare of the people.  

The technology based on AI could have a considerable effect on the different accounting databases in order to mitigate the various kinds of existing problems. The AI based technologies help in the development of models that could assist for the maker of decisions and thus would be able to able to focus on meeting with the demands of the market. The different computing systems that would be powered by AI software could be able to exploit the power of AI technologies. Some of the AI based tools could be helpful for facilitating the broader understanding of the captured events within the accounting systems. Rich and Waters (2014) have suggested that with the capturing of the different kinds of models such as the intelligent systems and AI tools, they could be helpful for facilitating databases for various kinds of users.

The integration of AI systems within the accounting databases could be helpful for assisting within the investigation of several large volumes of data. The AI based systems would be helpful for analysing the data. The works of Sol (2013a) would be able to assists the various users for the better form of understanding and interpret the transactions in the accounting systems. The different kinds of interfaces based on natural language processing could help in facilitating the use of the most systems in accounting departments. Additionally, the various kinds of cognitive processes and the structures of knowledge would be a major form of concern within the development of AI infrastructure.  

The various kinds of accounting firms have invested hugely within the sector of technology. Sutton, Holt and Arnold (2016) have stated that with the upcoming of latest forms of technologies, it has been seen that AI could be of a major form of use within the sector of accounting. They would be hugely helpful for solving different kinds of transactions and would also be able to solve multiple queries. The small forms based on accounting would also think of adopting.

Rise of AI within Accounting Firms

The AI is a kind of technology that would be helpful for enabling computers for performing the decision based tasks that used to be performed by humans previously. In the recent times, the AI technology is being developed by several accounting firms. This form of technology would be changing the face of the accounting firms in the coming years. West and Bhattacharya (2016) have discussed that the study of Artificial Intelligence is largely been used for digesting and analysing various volumes of data at different speeds. The use of AI has also helped for developing a sophisticated version of the spreadsheets that would be able to perform different kinds of transactions in a much more decision-oriented and analytical manner.

There are several kinds of accounting firms that made use of the traditional kinds of tools for performing different accounting processes. With the advent of AI, auditors have made the extensive usage of AI based tools that are supported by capabilities powered by natural language processing. Liu and Vasarhelyi (2014) in their study have stated that the new form of technology could prove to be useful for interpreting millions of contracts. The AI technology would be able to extract the primary terms, compile them and perform deep kinds of analytics. This would prove to be useful for gaining information about the key risks that might occur within the accounting systems. Hence they would prove to be helpful for mitigating the several kinds of risks.

The advent of technology could be very much powerful and hence has been improving in a quicker manner. The AI technology provides accurate forms of outputs based on certain kinds of inputs that would be accurate. Hence, these technologies would be replaced and would supersede the effort of humans. However, these kinds of technologies would not be able to replicate the AI technologies. The study of Holtgrewe (2014) have discussed that humans should be able to measure the strengths and weaknesses of the forms of intelligence and this would hugely help for the successful collaboration of humans and machines to work together. The extensive research in the field of AI have been focusing on the replication of the capabilities based on human reasoning. The AI systems had attempted to capture the knowledge shared by different experts and thus implement those form of ideas within the rule engines in order to make different forms of decisions and thus suggest recommendations.

Collaboration of Humans and AI within Accounting Sector

The approach based on the acceptance of AI based technology had some form of success. There was a number of technical issues within such kinds of systems. These issues were later solved with the high implementation of improved forms of technical systems Kokina and Davenport (2017) have suggested that the recent forms of successes with the implementation of AI in accounting systems would take a different form of approach. Rather than making a varied use of top-down model of approach, the AI based technologies make use of bottom-up approach. This would be useful for the learning if rules that would be based on observation of the activities that would take place in the accounting sector.

Different accountants apply the technical knowledge based on finance and accounting for helping stakeholders and businesses for the purpose of making better forms of accounting based decisions. Chan and Vasarhelyi (2018) have discussed that accountants have been researching for the use of technology in the past years that would prove to be helpful for them in order to provide them with the best kinds of advices and thus take better forms of decisions. With the effect of AI within the sector of accounting, the accountants have been helped for providing better advices to the people by advising them with better decisions.

AI based technical services could be helpful for accountants for solving three forms of broad problems. These are:

• Generate new kinds of insights based on the analysis of data.
• Freeing up of time in order to put major focus on important tasks such as building of decisions, development of strategy, solving of problems, building relationships and thus perform leadership.
• Provide cheap and better quality of data based on supporting of the making of decisions.

The research made by Jiang (2017a) have focused on the kinds of technology implemented behind machine learning have helped majorly for the making of several vital forms of improvements in every areas of accounting. These technologies have also equipped accountants with the help of serving them with new kinds of capabilities that might be able to automate the processes of work and thus also be able to support them with making of decisions based on accounting services. Based on the understanding of Bravo (2014a), the various kinds of problems that might be affecting the sector of businesses and accounting, it could be useful for the AI technology to implement relatable solutions. This would ensure better forms of adoption of AI technology based on the needs of different accounting firms.

The use of AI within the accounting sector would also involve the use within the different business aspects such as B2C, B2G, B2E, B2B and several other externalities. Chou and Bui (2014) have studied that AI would also be able to impact these sectors as the technology has massively impacted these areas. The technology has put major improvements within the sector by impacting them with new functionalities and also serving them with the latest models of technical services and softwares.

Based on the discussion from the report it could be recommended that the AI technology have proved to be a major help for the accounting sector. The impact of predictive models based on machine learning would be helpful for forecasting of revenues. AI should also be able to perform varied analysis on unstructured form of data that includes emails and contracts with the help of deep learning models. AI should also be improved within the use of the sector as they would help for the detection of frauds within the systems.

Conclusion

The discussion within this report focuses on the major forms of impacts that have been made with the implementation of AI technology. The roles of accounting have been changing with the implementation of new kinds of technology. AI has brought about new kinds of capabilities in the sector of data analytics. With the adoption of such latest forms of technologies, the accountants would need to get trained based on the use of such kinds of skills. This would also help in making of critical decisions and improvement of communication skills. Hence, it could be concluded that the implementation of AI technology within accounting systems would prove to be a major help for the further progress within the sector.  

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