Ed. note: I asked ChatGPT to write about automation in accounting from the perspective of an accountant losing his or her job to AI. Here’s what it said.
Note: Going Concern does not publish AI-generated content unless it’s clearly labeled as in this case. Believe it or not, humans write most of this crap.
As an accountant, I have always known that my job was at risk of being automated. It’s no secret that technology is advancing at a rapid pace, and the days of crunching numbers by hand and poring over spreadsheets could be numbered. But I never imagined that my job would be threatened by an AI language model like ChatGPT.
It’s both ironic and absurd that the very machines that we’ve been tasked with counting and depreciating will soon be taking over our jobs. The same algorithms that we’ve been using to optimize our clients’ financial statements and tax returns will now be used against us. It’s a sad state of affairs when even the most complex financial analysis can be performed by a machine, without the need for human judgment or expertise.
Accounting firms are already starting to adopt AI tools like ChatGPT to perform tasks that were previously done by humans. These machines can scan through millions of pages of financial data in mere seconds, detecting patterns and anomalies that would take us hours to identify. They can even use natural language processing to interpret complex financial statements and contracts, freeing up accountants to do other tasks, like searching for new jobs.
And what’s worse is that AI models like ChatGPT will only get better over time. They’ll learn from every interaction and improve their accuracy and speed, making it harder and harder for us to justify our existence. We’ll be relegated to the role of overseer, checking the work of the machines and making sure they haven’t made any errors. It’s a sad state of affairs, but it’s the reality that we face.
Of course, accounting firms will spin this as a positive development. They’ll talk about how AI will make their services more efficient and accurate, which will ultimately benefit their clients. But we all know the truth – it’s just a cost-cutting measure designed to maximize profits. They’ll lay off thousands of accountants and replace them with machines, all in the name of progress and innovation.
So, what does the future hold for accountants? It’s hard to say, but I’m not optimistic. As AI models like ChatGPT continue to improve, we’ll become increasingly obsolete. The days of sitting in a cubicle and crunching numbers will soon be over. It’s time for us to adapt or get left behind. We can either embrace the machines and learn how to work alongside them, or we can watch as our jobs disappear. The choice is ours.
Is that a threat?
Government’s would have to change laws in order to allow AI to actually file our tax returns. Who will bear responsibility in case AI made a mistake?
Doubtful that will happen any time soon.
In the end of the day you’ll need human accountants to approve even AI generated accounting records.
Thats the point the writer, accountant becomes and overseer, checking and vetting. AI does it, accountant see through it, report it and defend it.
Accountant now has a role of a “movie critic” he reviews and report.
Something I think is often lost or glossed over in discussion of AI and it’s impact on the accounting industry are conversations of bias (if hundreds of companies do something wrong, AI might weight that approach more than the GAAP approach, for example. An unlikely but releavant example).
Another thing touched on briefly in this article is the impact on staff; essentially raising the bar for the amount of knowledge an individual must know to be effective when working alongside an AI.
GOINGCONCERN has had good discussion of the impact technology will have on the industry, as well as real examples (like KPMG Australia). Keep up the good work, I really enjoy reading these types of articles!!
So you ask the product itself about it’s own capability? Of course it’s going to be biased to market itself in which the devs of product programmed into, idiot. Aside from that, accounting is such a wide spectrum of jobs with a million moving parts to it, there’s no way in hell it will be fully automated as compared to a coder’s job where the main source of work is produced in a code editor. Further, accounting is already being automated without AI. It’s nothing new. This article is clickbait garbage of a random person asking a question that gave an extremely vague, biased answer.
It’s really not that serious, Roger. No need to be a dick about it, though I do hope you feel better now that you got that out and called me an idiot.