How technology is reshaping accounting

As a new era dawns in the accounting and finance sectors, increasingly driven by disruptive technologies, advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and machine-learning technologies are redefining established business models while creating new challenges and opportunities.

Jane Cheng, head of ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Hong Kong, believes that technological advances can provide significant benefits to accounting and finance professionals if they are willing to embrace them. To continue to add value to employers and clients, Cheng says accounting professionals need an optimal combination of professional competencies that integrate technical skills with personal qualities. “ACCA professionals must have the skills to understand the transformative power of technologies such as artificial intelligence,” Cheng says.

Getting to grips with fintech is also a must. “Having the skills to understand its transformative powers, and the ability to manage and use it, is essential,” says Cheng, who points out that digital technologies such as AI have the potential to impact and transform the practice of accounting and the competencies that accounting professionals require.

The ACCA report “The Race for Relevance” highlights six technologies that are having an impact on the accounting and finance landscape. These include cloud-based computing; data analytics; robotic process automation; social media; cyber security, and AI.

“In various combinations, for any enterprise, these have the potential to change ways of working, to automate job tasks and require new skills,” Cheng says. For example, lower-level accounting roles are increasingly disappearing, while entrants joining the accounting profession are expected to undertake more complex tasks at the start of their careers.