AI experts urge accountants to leverage ChatGPT to improve efficiency
Bot and AI systems should be exploited by practices to improve efficiency, say experts.
The CEO of the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA), Andrew Conway, and the financial transformation partner at HLB Mann Judd, Fiona Dixon, urge accountants to explore AI as a potential source for advisory work for clients and to experiment with Open AI tools like ChatGPT, while being mindful of data security risks. Dixon said that businesses that want to continue to grow and accounting firms that want to continue to service clients need to find ways of creating efficiencies through automation and added that staff are already starting to see the benefits of automation in their work.
Accountants are being urged to take a closer look at the ways artificial intelligence systems can improve their practice. According to Andrew Conway, the CEO of the Institute of Public Accountants, the rise of ChatGPT has sparked mainstream curiosity about AI, making businesses and accountants more open to its use. He says that AI has been present in the field of accounting for years and presents a huge opportunity for accountants to explore it for advisory work. However, he adds that the exercise of judgement is a core aspect of the profession and accountants should not rely on ChatGPT to write opinions or articles on a client.
The financial transformation partner at HLB Mann Judd, Fiona Dixon, says that the growing interest in AI technology, as seen with the launch of ChatGPT, is a positive development and she hopes it prompts questions about how it can help accounting firms. Dixon says that businesses and accounting firms need to find ways of creating efficiencies, especially as staff shortages and increasing compliance requirements become an issue. Dixon and her team at HLB Mann Judd have already started to automate some of the processes in their audit division and she expects even greater time savings can be achieved through automation in the accounting and tax division.
Andrew Conway warns that while experimenting with Open AI tools like ChatGPT is encouraged, data security risks must be kept in mind. He says that people must be aware of protecting data when using open source bots like ChatGPT and strongly cautions against using it for client details. Dixon adds that ChatGPT will continue to evolve and the speed of its evolution will be determined by how comfortable humans become with the technology.
