Artificial intelligence is still on the threshold of business operations transformation, offering potential benefits for operational efficiency, cost savings, and business process optimisation, but it shouldn't be treated as a threat to people's jobs, according to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
In ACCA's recent and inaugural global economic outlook annual prospects report, the professional accounting body took note of how the excitement about artificial intelligence reached new heights in 2023.
While applications are largely in the early stages of adoption, development continues rapidly, ACCA says.
Not a threat
In the accountancy profession, ACCA views that AI is unlikely to destroy significant numbers of jobs.
The automation of data entry and routine processing tasks does not signify that those roles become entirely redundant--although it does mean that the tasks will change.
Further, expectations will change as AI helps boosts the accuracy of processes and frees up more time to infer insights from data.
At this moment, the jury is still out but ACCA views that 2024 could offer an indication of how things are likely to progress and the extent to which there might be wider economic benefits from the technology in the near-term.
2024 forecasts
The year 2024 could see both an open-source boom and much greater variety in the types and capabilities of models, which can be very helpful in the finance function.
Recent breakthroughs have been made by rapidly expanding the size of large language models (LLMs), and the question lies to whether the next breakthrough will come from super-sizing or shrinking models.
Smaller models built for specific domains – such as accountancy – may be more interesting, for adopters, than fine-tuning a general model. Meanwhile, hardware and cost constraints also make the latter appealing from an innovation perspective.
According to ACCA, AI is likely to serve as a catalyst for innovation in the business world if opportunities are recognised and training is prioritised, but there will be gaps in adoption.
ACCA further points out that many organisations suffer from poor-quality data or related infrastructure that must first be brought up to date before they can leverage the benefits of AI.
In use, the application of AI also requires effective governance, protection, and evaluation processes, especially when private or proprietary data is in play. These considerations will, in part, determine the immediacy of AI’s impact.
