Insights and workflow automation dominate recent and planned AI solutions

The year 2023 was positively stuffed with developments in artificial intelligence in accounting technology, with companies announcing new products, features and capacities on a near-daily basis — and if the collection of AI innovations talked about at this year’s AICPA Executive Roundtable is any indication, 2024 will be even more so. 

The two-day event, held last week in New York City, brought together over 40 technology leaders in the accounting space whose products cover everything from tax to audit to advisory and more. Save for two, AI was brought up in each talk, indicating that the appetite for AI solutions has far from abated and, indeed, seems to be accelerating. 

Two use cases dominated the vast majority of AI developments described by companies: data-driven insights and workflow automation, with nearly all innovations pertaining to one or both. 

On data-driven insights, some solutions were more focused on driving internal efficiencies for firms themselves, while others were more targeted at clients who wanted insights into their businesses or individual finances. In both cases, though, companies described AI systems as leveraging data (whether the firm’s or the client’s) to analyze the entity’s strengths and weaknesses and provide suggestions for growth and risk mitigation. This analysis might come in the form of popup suggestions, a holistic report, or something else entirely.

There was a wide range of possible subjects for this analysis, from revenue opportunities to R&D credits to cash flow to financial modeling and much more. Regardless, the number of solutions geared towards analyzing data and optimizing processes indicates that the profession sees this as an especially germane use case. 

Similarly, AI solutions for workflow automation covered a wide range of possible things to automate on both the firm and client level. Some of these solutions involved communications such as writing emails, generating marketing copy or composing engagement letters. There were other solutions that were primarily about retrieving and sorting relevant information, whether documentation needed for an engagement or data needed for an analysis, sometimes in combination with optical character recognition. There were also solutions geared specifically towards accounting firms that would do things like automate the filing of simple returns or facilitate the e-signature process. 

A number of vendors were also developing, or have recently developed, AI chatbot assistants that people can query for advice or to simply to talk out an idea. Companies are either licensing and modifying public or commercial models from other companies like OpenAI, or — in the case of some very large organizations — using their significant resources to build one themselves.

In either case, technology leaders at the event acknowledged the data privacy challenges that chatbots represent, namely that they might leak data. For instance, every prompt sent to ChatGPT is stored on OpenAI’s servers, which has prevented many accounting professionals from leveraging the bot due to ethics concerns. However they also assured people that their own models are stored on their own network and data from their interactions does not leave their network. 

Several presenters indicated their company’s commitment to responsible AI usage, acknowledging the ethical risks that the new technology can present. Some said they have developed internal frameworks and policies governing their use of AI to encourage safe and ethical uses; others cited a strong ethos and sense of responsibility fueling their commitment. 

Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com and one of the hosts of the roundtable, noted that while the profession has seen major technological changes before, such as cloud computing, the rise of generative AI seems to have sparked an interest and enthusiasm that seems different than other waves. 

“The difference with generative AI is that we believe its impact will be much more profound and happen a lot faster. Nearly every accounting technology provider today is exploring if and how generative AI can be integrated into their existing solutions to address firms’ top challenges. And many more will likely emerge in the short-term. These capabilities — when harnessed the right way — will enable firms to focus more on delivering the higher value services their clients increasingly need. This presents an enormous opportunity for the profession,” he said.