Using AI to automate transactional work, redesign roles

The biggest AI risk companies face is not reputational damage from automation errors, but the financial drains from over-investment in underutilised AI technology, Gartner senior director of analysis Nick Duffy (pictured) told Accounting Times.

He said that companies without the right data structure, tools, or talent will not receive a return on investment.

With implementation aligned with the firm’s needs, AI and automation technologies will reduce transactional work for accounting professionals, whose roles will shift from report creation to exception reporting reviews.

“[AI technologies can handle] the repetitive tasks like data entry, reconciliations, report generation, and really reduce our manual workflow. This automation gives us more time back,” Duffy said.

Role exposure to AI risks

Duffy predicted that management accounting roles would be safer from exposure compared with financial accounting roles.

AI-led role redesign will also impact entry-level roles, he said, roles that will focus more on managing technology and aiding decision-making, rather than on transactional work prone to automation, such as reconciliations.

Despite these impacts on roles, Duffy asserted that AI can only mimic human judgement, not replace it. He added that accounting professionals at smaller practices who are keen to upskill in AI, with the right passion and motivation, can help their firms implement automation for workflow efficiency.

“Organisations that drive good adoption with AI…start off with very safe, but helpful use cases…[they] invest in things that just improve team productivity…which gets their employees over the hurdle of seeing it as a threat,” he said.

“Artificial intelligence is not going to be something that is a standalone initiative. It's going to be woven into our very finance technology strategy.”