Can Accountants Get Automation Right?

I have to admit, when the topic of automation arises among accountants these days, it does give me some pleasure to hear that it’s not about “if” but “what” to automate. This, of course, opens up its own set of questions without easy answers.

The insights I gained from talking with practitioners at Botkeeper’s recent AI Unchained event—who were all working on different automation-related problems—were quite instructive. Surely accountants familiar with automation would be at an event put on by a company that creates AI-driven platforms? However, in addition to challenges in identifying which tasks are best to automate, there are still a lot of integration issues that need to be resolved.

One of the discussions I engaged in involved an issue I hear often from firms that welcome automation, but not all of their staff or clients are on board with the decisions. Automating something that was once generally familiar in a manual sense or on another platform can in itself be disruptive. And while that may be part of the point of automation, it still is not always wholly embraced. So, what does a firm do when there’s pushback from staff and especially clients?

There are a couple of schools of thought when it comes to getting staff and clients to accept new ways of doing, well, anything, but particularly when it comes to using new platforms. We’re not just talking about AI tools, which may well be embedded in nearly every platform accountants will use, but getting automation acceptance can take a couple paths as I mentioned.

The firms I got to speak with at the roundtable discussion on automation either chose the approach of “this is what we’re using now; we’ll train you, but this is the way we’re doing things going forward” or they were more selective about which teams or clients to onboard first. Both of these approaches seem to track with the many discussions I’ve had of recent with practitioners.

AI, of course, is the next level of automation, and like cloud before it, acceptance is going to take time. On this, I raised a point I’ve heard over the years when it comes to the profession and business in general as it relates to technology adoption: “the pace of change will never be slower than it is right now.” No truer words, and I know it does give some firm leaders pause.

Everyone wants to serve their clients in the best ways they can and run their firms as efficiently as possible. With the tools available today, the possibilities continue to grow. This is both welcoming and concerning. In the end, accountants just want the right tool for the job they are doing, and in some cases that may not exist yet and may be up to the profession to figure out how to build it.

One of the groups in my discussion came from a firm that served the winery industry, mostly books and some business advisory work. They liked the platforms they were on, but still were on the search for a tool that either worked with, or could even replace their GL, that had winery-specific line items.

Building out a niche has long been seen as a sure path to growth, but when there aren’t industry-specific tools to do the job, the only choices are build it yourself or find a workaround. Perhaps the growth of AI will allow firms to customize what they need to automate workflows and accounting-related tasks. Eventually, it won’t matter what niche you serve; you’ll be able to automate what you need to and have the tasks completed efficiently and correctly.

Until that time comes, and based on the discussions I was able to have at AI Unchained, accountants need to feel like there’s been no better time to take control over where technology goes. Rather than waiting for things to be built for you, use your voice and your knowledge to shape exactly what will make the most sense for you and your clients to use.

AI is not coming for your job; it is here for you to shape how jobs can be done better. If the data is correct and the direction is sure, the future of accounting could indeed be a bright one.