Business Trends ACCOUNTING


Rumblings of a revolution


Artificial intelligence may transform the profession


“It’s very diffi cult to predict what an accountant will be doing 10 years from today,” says J.K. Aier of George Mason University.


by Richard Foster I


f you were asked to name an occupation that soon will be transformed by artificial intel-


ligence, accounting probably isn’t the first one that comes to mind. Nonetheless, CPAs and


accounting professors say that AI — combined with other technologies such as blockchain


Photo by Stephen Gosling


— may radically change the profession’s procedures within the next decade. “The accountant of today


is going to be different from the accountant of tomorrow — and far, far different from the accoun- tant of yesterday,” says J.K. Aier, an associate professor and area


chair of accounting at George Mason University. “Things are changing as we’re trying to under- stand it. … It’s very difficult to predict what an accountant will be doing 10 years from today.” Global accounting firms such


as Deloitte, Pric ewaterhouse- Coopers and KPMG already use


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