Will Artificial Intelligence Increase Efficiency in the Accounting and Editing Jobs? (Essay Sample)

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Will artificial intelligence increase efficiency in the accounting and editing jobs?
Introduction
When people think of artificial intelligence (AI) they imagine it as being the new form of automation that has rose to overtake and replace human intelligence. To define, artificial intelligence is the capacity of machines and software to exhibit cognitive intelligence capabilities. In the recent past, artificial intelligence has risen above and beyond to perform human-line tasks and decisions. Its competence in cognitive intelligence has been witnessed in high intelligent operations such as delivery of speech, chess games, simulations, and autonomous interpretation of data. Industries are now embracing it owing to its accuracy and efficiency capacities. The accounting sector is one of the areas where AI has shown potential for revolutionization (Askary et al 320). Its automation function will be applied extensively in activities such as clearing invoices, automation of workflows, and analytical calculations, just to mention a few. Research shows that, Artificial intelligence application can wipe out the numerous accounting errors and operational challenges that are in the profession. However, the perception of its impact on the profession is highly polarized with concerns raised. On one hand, opposers feel that, through automation and performance of all the routine tasks, AI could replace auditors and accountants in the future, thus creating a fully automated working environment. On the other hand, AI has been associated with advanced performance and superior performance altogether. Without a doubt, this artificial intelligence will improve the overall efficiency of functions of accounting and auditing through automation. Artificial intelligence will create an interoperable system of information processing and sharing which will improve the processes and the productivity of the accounting professionals altogether. With technical guidance and training, the professionals will be in a place to fit in the automated world and garner the computer skills required in data automation. To accountants and auditors of the future, AI will be principally complementary as it refines their operability and output. Artificial intelligence will encourage reliability of accounting information, improve auditing quality, aid in detection of fraud, and provide in-depth insight in operations; therefore, it will enhance efficiency in accounting and auditing field in the future.
Reliability of accounting information
Artificial intelligence promises to develop and enhance internal control systems which would in return minimize the accounting information risk. According to Askary et al.,“, artificial intelligence offers a high quality, more coordinated internal control over financial reporting, thus creating better trust on the reports used for decision making”(4) This argument means that, the automated internal systems pave the way for the identification and rectification of a faulty procedure, hence making information reliable. Essentially, accountants are tasked with handling an organization’s top information and financial pathways, thus the reliability of such information is of paramount importance to the entire organization. Weak internal control systems expose financial information to risks such as fraud, error, and manipulation. However, with artificial intelligence, the internal control system has the capacity to recognizing and analyzing risks, create appropriate responses, and create the appropriate response measures to risks. Through artificial intelligence, managers can recognize, analyses, and get rid of all the faults. In return, they create final solutions which offer quick remedies. It can be argued that artificial intelligence uses a programmed, high-level decision making platform that altogether safeguards the critical financial information.
The tasks performed by AI are classified into three segments. Sense employs computer vision technology like facial recognition to unmask the weak links found in the internal control systems of organizations. When such utilities are integrated with technologies such as those of video and image analysis, they eliminate the inventory and control related challenges. In the comprehend task, artificial intelligence uses technologies such as language processing and expert systems to get past the weaknesses found in the internal control system. Lastly, in the acting function, an AI system works independently or in process to establish and resolve the problems of the system. Generally, AI eliminates the auditor detection risk, improve audit quality, and minimize the chances of compromising the information by solving the control risk. Overall, AI will be critical in providing high quality accounting information which will mitigate the challenges engendered by faulty or weak internal control processes.
AI will improve audit quality
Artificial intelligence will improve the quality to audit procedures as it creates an avenue where auditors and other stakeholders can ask more questions. A research conducted by Mukono et al, argued that, a digitized system tracks the movement of files within the organization and operations, thus increasing the security and flow of data (210). Indeed, the research argued that, having access to digital files makes operations easy, fast, and accurate. In the previous times, auditors faced a grave challenge of keeping data up to date, monitoring company operations, and establishing loopholes in the data. Such challenges have hindered auditing procedures significantly. However, with the Robotic Process Automation, data will be processed more accurately and on a real time basis. This automation cuts the error-prone tasks such as transaction analysis and account fluctuations. These functions are also ensuring that companies involve in ongoing auditing, thus guaranteeing that financial statements are accurate and vetted in the most appropriate way.
Another field where AI can come in handy is in the field of unstructured data. Here, AI can be employed in data extraction and organization to make the operation easy for auditors. Consequently, the end product will be accurate and mistake free. Also, in the machine learning algorithm, auditors will have a grip of the new technological operations; therefore will have a firm grip of the different technologies put in place. By learning the machine algorithm, the auditors will learn the capability of analysis of remarkably huge amounts of data. Fundamentally, AI promises a deep-dive into data analysis, something that would not be possible in the traditional auditing procedures. According to Law and Shen, AI reinforces the performance of auditors, up skilling their jobs, and improves audit quality(700). Definitively, AI ‘s position in auditing is pivotal.
Avoid the probability of accounting fraud
One of the most notable conveniences of artificial intelligence is its role in detecting and controlling fraud in the accounting and auditing operations. According to Chukwuani, the inclusion of AI knowledge in the accounting of businesses locks out the possible opportunity of fraud as it sees to it that, a large proportion of the business operations are handled by computers (2454). This means that, automated programs are hard to tamper with consequently minimizing the chances of “cooking books”. In the traditional accounting setting, the accounting department is not entirely separated from the rest of the work segment. This means that financial and accounting officials can have an easy access on the accounting and cash flow information. This exposure of extremely vulnerable financial data can attract doctoring when the need arises.
One of the ways in which Artificial intelligence will help organizations fight fraud is through its potential to analys and process voluminous amounts of transactional data in real time. The system is in a position to detect all the malicious and odd patterns that cannot be easily identified by human capacity. Over the years, it has been witnessed that, fraud cases like fictitious crimes are hard to notice as the culprits manipulate the work such that individuals are not in a place to decipher the problems. However, with AI, it is easy to identify the patterns of miscalculations and mismanagements of finances. Through such algorithms, the employers can leverage information such as the location of the involved, as well as the time and the type of transaction. Another way which AI can detect fraudulent actions is via setting early detectors of fraud. AI technology acts as virtual supervision that safeguards the entire system against malice. Through its internal control protocols, AI identifies anomalies within the system and process them while during the early stages of fraud. This way, minimal damage is done to the firm’s finances and information. AI has an inbuilt system that performs data analysis in a span of seconds, thus its capability to detect even the slightest form of hiccup in the system. Lastly, AI minimizes the chances of false positive in the channel of financial analysis operation, thus saving the organization both time and finances. It provides the correct algorithm which in return translates to high efficiency and accuracy in the operation. This information means that, a comparatively lesser number of customers will be rejected for fraud cases, hence there will be less friction between both the firm and the customers.
More in-depth insight into business operations
With the automation and learning models that come with AI, businesses will have direct access to the timely data which will improve decision maki...