A lot of technological changes have taken place in the last few years, completely transforming the way businesses were operating. The impact on business is not limited to operations and extends to finance & accounting functions. These technologies not only bring about an opportunity for a professional accountant to enhance value to the business but also gives rise to new forms of risks that need to be accounted for. Let us try to understand more about some of the technological advancements and how we can prepare ourselves and be ready to embrace them.
A new revolution driven by a wide range of technological advances is currently underway and many more will also take place in the future. This era of technological advances is popularly known as 'the fourth industrial revolution'. A host of new technological advancements such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), Blockchain, Robotics Process Automation, Big Data, Internet of Things, etc are reshaping the way businesses operate and are gradually transforming every aspect of the business including the Finance and Accounting functions. These will not only influence the future of businessoperations but will also have a bearing on the way the accountancy profession of the future will work.
All companies sooner than later must adopt these emerging technologies in order to retain and expand their business (customer base) and stay competitive, those who do not embrace the changes will be forced to shut shop. The accounting profession is also no exception and must also keep pace. We as professionals need to understand how these technologies are evolving over time and reposition ourselves as able advisers to business in order to stay relevant.
The impact these emerging technologies will have on the accounting profession can best be understood by studying the impact these technologies will have on the various business processes, most importantly as to how it will affect the way data is captured, processed, stored and used in the businesses for decision-making purposes.The Institute of chartered accountant of India release ICAI Exam Form. Let us look at some of the most popular technological advancements around us and understand how and what impact the same will have on the profession.
Artificial Intelligence:
Artificial Intelligence is the most talked about technology in the world. Starting from driverless cars, manufacturing robots, to social media monitoring, smart assistants and natural language processing tools, there is a breadth of technology applications across multiple industries.
We might not realise it but, every time we are browsing on the internet or shopping or opening a news feed, artificial Intelligence is always around us and working in the background. The apps we use for travel, navigation apps, autopilot modes in airplanes are only some of the examples of artificial intelligence and the use will only increase in the future. Coming to the accounting profession, companies are
embracing and implementing new technologies to increase their computing capabilities to an altogether new level. A lot of routine tasks that required human interventions are being automated using artificial intelligence-based machine learning. There are applications that use complex algorithms to process huge data volumes on a real-time basis with the objective to give meaningful and error-free intelligence.Candidates can take RSCIT Online Test and test there preparation for next RSCIT Online Exam. All these processing somewhat happens in an opaque environment as the processing of data is not visible, which raises a question of how and whether a profession can rely on the output generated.
Blockchain
Blockchain is a technology that works by means of peer to peer internet-based distributed ledgers that do not require any central authority or any third party to act as intermediaries, and since it doesn’t require any intermediaries it is cheaper and faster. Two of the most important characteristics of a blockchain are that it cannot be controlled by any individual and it has no single point failure.
Robotics Process Automation
Robotic process automation involves the use of bots or computer applications to automate routine and repetitive tasks that are otherwise performed through human interventions. RPA’s are configured in a way to perform a set of operations following a pre-defined process and work on a template-based input system. An RPA system has the following characteristics;
RPA applications can be potentially used across functions such as Accounts receivable, Accounts Payable, Payment Processing, Customer Service and Grievance Management, Resume screening, Pre and post payroll processing, Tax processing, etc to name a few.
Impact on Professionals
These emerging technologies have already started to penetrate industries and business models. Robotics and automation are replacing a lot of repetitive human tasks and decisions, with the algorithm being programmed to carry out specific tasks such as data entries. Application software is being developed and enhanced which can gather relevant information from big data easily and in real-time, thus improving productivity and efficiency.
Technologies such as advanced analytical methods, advanced statistics, big data, etc, are still in their initial stages and are not being used extensively by professionals yet and will take some time before professionals start using these technologies effectively.
Roadmap Ahead
For the future, a combination of skill sets is critical, the professional accountants should not only possess accounting and analytical skills but should also have IT skills. In order to ensure that these technological changes do not become disruptive, we must ensure that proper plans are in place to deal with technological changes.
The plan should include the following aspects;
Familiarity with emerging technologies: One of the most crucial steps is to gain an understanding of the new emerging technologies, such as, Robotics Process Automation, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language processing, etc. Unless we are aware of the technologies and the way they work or how the same is programmed it would be difficult to identify risk or perform a control testing for the same.
Risk Assessment Risk assessment is and will stay a critical process in the overall audit procedure. We should evaluate the operational, financial, business and regulatory impact of the emerging technologies and further break them down based on risk rating.Information about Bank of India Balance Enquiry Number CAknowledge. This is the most crucial step as this would be the base upon which the entire audit procedures will be built.
Strategic Planning All these new technologies will reduce, if not eliminate completely the manual procedures. Further, most of these technologies work by integrating different systems together and the entire flow of data starting with input, processing, and output is controlled through codes, algorithms, modelling techniques, etc. Factors such as an error in assumptions, coding errors can have an adverse impact on the outcome, and since traditionally a professional accountant is not proficient in IT, detection of these errors becomes difficult. It is thus important that a team is developed having members who are proficient in IT or are trained in coding.
Training The Professional accountants should be ready to embrace the change and train themselves to gain insight into these technologies, training should be provided to develop members, each having a different range of skills and abilities.
