Accountants are generally willing to use AI, but a new survey has identified a lingering skills gap and a sense of unpreparedness for the changes AI would bring.

Most accountants (85 per cent) are at least ‘fairly willing’ to use AI tech, an April poll by Ipsos has found.

However, over half (52 per cent) of accountants reported that insufficient training was a significant barrier to adoption of AI.

“Upskilling remains a critical area of focus, as many accountants lack the confidence to effectively utilise AI tools,” Maciek Ozorowski, head of AI transformation at Ipsos said.

“Addressing these challenges will be pivotal in advancing AI adoption, ensuring that Chartered Accountants can harness the technology to its fullest, ultimately transforming their roles into more strategic, advisory capacities.”

A majority (66 per cent) of accountants surveyed by Ipsos had never participated in AI-related training through their organisation.

Most accountants believed the responsibility of AI training would fall to professional bodies, the survey found. Over half (65 per cent) of accountants expected professional accountancy bodies to deliver AI training, compared to 32 per cent who expected the responsibility to fall on their employer.

Based on the survey’s findings, Ipsos recommended that accounting bodies should develop AI competency frameworks to outline the knowledge, skills and abilities that accountants should develop in harnessing AI technology.

“A structured framework approach would help ensure that the Accountancy profession has the necessary talent to thrive in an AI-driven world, as there is a belief among those surveyed that AI adoption will make the profession both more attractive and more important in future years,” Ipsos said.

Professional accounting body CA ANZ recently released an AI fluency certificate which has aimed to develop AI literacy among accountants, indicating a growing awareness of the need for AI training among professional bodies.

“Developing AI literacy is the single most impactful thing that any professional can do today for their career, team and business. The certificate is a perfect starting point,” AI and technology adoption expert Inbal Rodnay said regarding the course.

"We have worked to create learning materials that develop lasting, meaningful skills in what is a rapidly evolving field. The course is practical, and the learning is immediately applicable, so people can confidently integrate AI into their ways of working and stay ahead of industry changes.”

Training aside, accountants said they would use AI more in their day-to-day work if they had better integration in existing tools (51 per cent), more user-friendly AI tools (32 per cent) and better reassurance about data security (29 per cent).

The majority (79 per cent) of accountants believed that they would see increasing responsibility over data governance as AI became more integrated into business operations, exposing companies to more cybersecurity risks.

Encouragingly, over half (56 per cent) of surveyed accountants agreed that incorporating AI into the profession would make accounting more attractive as a career choice.

They believed that the profession would evolve into a more strategic, advisory role as AI automated mundane routine tasks such as data entry. A majority (52 per cent) disagreed that the value that accountants provide could be replaced by automated systems.

“Advancements in AI have the potential to change how many of us do our jobs —either today or in the near future,” Tim Bond, associate director at Ipsos said.

“However, this is not about replacing human intelligence with an artificial one — as there will always be a need for the creative thinking and contextual understanding that we bring.”