The 33rd Annual Seminar Automation, AI and the future of the

professionprofession

By Kirstin Gillon, ICAEW

Credibility . Professionalism . AccountAbility

Broadband

Cyber

Government digital

Future of the profession

Big data and AI

Blockchain

ICAEW IT Faculty

Thought Policy Government digital

Roadshows

ACA and CFAB

Communications

Blockchain

IT Security

Cloud

Excel

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

Thought leadership

Member service

Link to ICAEW

Policy

Agenda

• Trends in automation

– What’s new?

• Impact on accountants

– Practice and business– Practice and business

– Implications for skills

• Longer-term challenges

• ICAEW resources

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

The future accountant?

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

Range of automation activities

Accounting Robotic

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

Accounting and

compliance

Robotic Process

Automation

Artificial Intelligence

Accounting and compliance

Key questions Our experience

What’s new? • Cloud and mobile- based models• Automated functionality• Integrated workflow• Online filing

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

• Online filing

What are some examples? • Bank reconciliations• Expenses• Audit data transfers• Automated feeds to government systems

What is driving adoption? • Efficiency and cost• Better client service• Improved data analysis

Robotic Process Automation

Key questions Our experience

What’s new? • Based on user tasks and interface• Rules-based• Configured by users• Repetitive and high volume processes

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

• Repetitive and high volume processes

What are some examples? • Insurance claims processes• Compliance – KYC, AML processes• Travel and expense management• Review and payment of invoices

What is driving adoption? • Business case• Speed and scale

Artificial Intelligence

Key questions Our experience

What’s new? • Computers teach themselves the rules• Predictive and statistical models• Need lots of data and repeatable problems• More accurate outputs than humans

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

• More accurate outputs than humans

What are some examples? • Account coding• Identifying unusual transactions• Forecasting revenues• Text analysis

What is driving adoption? • Powerful decision aids• Potential to automate more complex

decisions

Accountants in practice

• Different focus in accounting and

compliance tasks – e.g. spotting errors,

low cost processing centres

• More advisory services

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

- Business and financial planning

- Process improvement

- Tax planning

• Better quality client conversations

- Focus on higher risk, complex

areas

- Providing more insights from data

- More proactive, regular contact

Accountants in business

• Business partnering

- Getting insight from data

- Good data management and control

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

- Non-financial measures

• More forward looking

- Better predictive models

- Continuous monitoring

• Data ethics

- Privacy

- Algorithm governance

Implications for skills

• Technical skills

- Data

- Statistics

- Visualisation

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

- Visualisation

• Soft skills

- Communications

- Critical thinking

• Cultural and mindset changes

• Regular reskilling

Technology and accounting

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

www.icaew.com/ITleadership

Forthcoming work on AI

• Thought leadership report –

AI and the future of

accountancy

• Series of events with

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

• Series of events with

Professor Moshe Vardi

• Join our free Google Hangout

to discuss the issues on 30

June

Big data and the profession

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

www.icaew.com/bigdata

Questions and thank you!

Email: kirstin.gillon@icaew.com

ICAEW, Chartered Accountants’ Hall, London

Email: kirstin.gillon@icaew.comBlog: https://ion.icaew.com/itcounts/

@icaew_ITFaculty