The impact of disruptive technologies on accounting profession

Technology is changing all aspects of business life and forcing adaptation in business processes and product
utilization. Disruptive technologies usually bring in cheaper and simpler products with features valued by new
customers and often cause radical industry changes, such as minicomputers taking over the market dominated by
mainframes, and subsequently being replaced by personal computers , how social media changes customer
relationship management and how artificial intelligence affects earnings news dissemination .Given these disruptive
information technologies, business measurement (accounting) will inevitably change and be progressively
automated in order to continue to be of great importance to the enterprises and stakeholders.

The technology-driven world in which we live is a world filled with promise but also challenges. Cars that drive
themselves, machines that read X-rays and algorithms that respond to customer-service inquiries are all
manifestations of powerful new forms of automation. Yet even as these technologies increase productivity and
improve our lives, their use will substitute for some work activities humans currently perform—a development that
has sparked much public concern. Powerful new technologies are increasing productivity, improving lives, and
reshaping our world.

Automation and its impact on accounting

Many businesses have already shifted their infrastructure into the cloud, according to Gartner, which calls cloud
computing “one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending.” Gartner predicts the cloud will impact more than $1
trillion in information technology spending by 2020.Writing for Forbes, Ceterus founder and CEO Levi Morehouse
groups the cloud with AI and robots as the future of accounting and invoicing. If you’re building your career as an
accounting professional, Morehouse suggests, resources like AI and the cloud are likely to become more
commonplace in corporate environments. That means familiarizing yourself with them can help prepare you for the
future of business — and accounting. According to Morehouse, as an accounting professional, you can expect to use
accounting AI and the cloud to compute massive amounts of data in short time periods. He notes that AI can amass
data, as well as find patterns and anomalies, so that you and other financial workers can make better-informed
decisions. That’s not the only benefit of using AI. Safely storing financial data can make a company less vulnerable
to intrusion and liability, and adding AI for accounting to the equation could hasten processes and allow you to
focus on fewer menial or redundant tasks.

Robotic process automation (RPA), the ways it impacts accounting, and suggest future research directions. The
results provide insights into the nature of the accounting transformation. The potential for automating accounting
processes with RPA is high, and robots are predicted to replace accountants for a considerable part of their tasks.
That could lead to the disappearance of entry-level accounting positions and, simultaneously, the creation of new
accountant roles. Future accountants’ responsibilities will go beyond bookkeeping and financial reporting towards
business advisory and leading the RPA transformation. The change entails the need to improve their soft skills, and
technology and data skills. It calls for more studies on an effective method to integrate these skills into the
accounting education model. Further research is required to examine the potential negative effects of employing
robots. These relate to the unnecessary human-robot competition, unintended organ-isational structure changes,
deskilling, and building expertise and knowledge management. Finally, to obtain a more comprehensive view of the
impacts of RPA performance, more in-depth research is needed to account for all the financial and non-financial
effects of RPA implementation.

Business Process Automation (BPA) is assumed to enhance organizational efficiency by decreasing level of effort
and elimination of redundant processes and procedures. The study in hand is an analysis of impact by the BPA on
the AGPR employees' efficiency. Five variables namely, New System Understanding, Adaptation to New
Methodology, Response of Employees to Change, Conformity to Standards and Employees' Efficiency. A
questionnaire comprised of 29 items was adapted for primary data collection. The population was of employees in
AGPR and stakeholder like Ministry of Finance, the Controller General of Accounts and Line Ministries. The
sample size was of 265 respondents. Descriptive, Pearson correlation and Regression Analysis has been applied
through SPSS software for finding significant relationship and importance of BPA for employee's efficiency.

Accounting Plus Skills Framework

All of that means that accountants have to perform a high-wire act when looking to implement new technology that
could help improve their services. They must take their clients on the journey with them, demonstrating the benefits
of technology, and without missing the basic bookkeeping requirements that the majority of their customers still
have. They must act as royal food-tasters, sampling the latest innovations and advising their clients on how they’ll
affect their systems – and avoiding anything damaging. It’s a delicate pursuit. Technology allows businesses not
only to cut down on repetitive tasks, but also to benefit from more informed decision-making. With automation,
businesses can cut down on back-end admin, and focus on more business-critical, strategic tasks. Think about it: the
more insight an accountancy firm can access, the greater its value in the eyes of current and prospective clients.

If we can be certain of one thing, it’s that disruptive technology is very much disrupting the accountancy sector as
we know it. What’s less certain is whether or not accountants are adopting the latest technical changes in the sector.
Ultimately, those who understand the latest technologies and adopt them will be the ones with the competitive edge.

References

1.https://www.accountancyage.com/2019/07/01/accountancy-is-disruptive-technology-having-an-
impact/

2. Christensen, C. M. 2013. The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston,
MA: Harvard Business Review Press. [Google Scholar]

3. Li Zhang, Duo Pei, Miklos A. Vasarhelyi (2017) Toward a New Business Reporting Model. Journal of Emerging
Technologies in Accounting: Fall 2017, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 1-15.

4 https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=815906