As AI and automation collide with dwindling numbers of accountancy students, will only ‘robotic’ accountancy practices survive? Vipul Sheth discusses the options.
Is the makeup of the ‘accountancy practice of the near future’ one that is so automated that it doesn’t have, or need, people to run it?
Without wishing to spoil the thread (or punchline) of this particular blog, my belief is ‘no’. However, there are a number of interesting nuances around what seems a quite straightforward question, and they require some consideration.
Students and skillsets
Firstly, some stats for context. The inaugural Advancetrack Accounting Talent Index revealed that, globally, the number of accounting students is falling. And capacity for the existing accountants is very tight. India is still pumping out plenty of accountants, but it is a big ask to expect one country to support a global capacity problem.
However, with AI and automation abound, do we really need the same number of accountants coming through anyway? Again, there isn’t a straightforward or binary answer to this question. And a new set of stats illustrates the complexity.
Joint research by Sage, Demos, and the ACCA shows that AI-enabled practices expect to hire many more employees than practices that don’t see AI as a driver for their organisation (looking to bring in 20% more people over the next three years).
But nearly two-thirds of respondents fear that a lack of AI skills in their workforce will hold their practice back, with only 16% stating they are well-prepared.
Issues summarised
These key stats from both pieces of research go some distance in encapsulating a myriad of issues practices face, which I’ll attempt to summarise as:
The push to automate practices comes from increasing complexity of client work in tandem with recruitment problems. We’re also seeing that, as clients require different services (more digitised, real-time and analytical), then that exacerbates the recruitment issues… ‘We need different people, who are they and what is it that we need them to do?’
For all the talk of automation, AI and digitisation, it seems that practices’ clients more than ever want a value-added and hand-holding service from practitioners – with the grunt work of compliance done quickly and with as little fuss as possible. For me, this is the reason that we will need people to run a practice; to manage systems, evaluate and verify outputs and, of course, advise clients.
Polarisation potential
But a word of warning. I fear there could be a polarisation within the accountancy practice market. For as many firms we see in the market that are struggling to manage their resources, the ones that we are working with are growing… and not just through the use of Advancetrack’s services to manage resources – they are growing revenues, profits, and headcount.
Now, whether their new recruits are all qualified accountants is another matter entirely. And there is a big question mark around the structure and content of the major accountancy syllabuses i.e. are accountancy qualifications fit for the future?
Ultimately, there is a lot of change ahead – but the practices we work with are building and planning to be profitable and sustainable. In doing so, they are able to automate, build tech-enabled offerings, and impress accountants (and others) to join them. My fear is that those practices which don’t keep up will lead to a polarisation of haves and have-nots.
Vipul Sheth is founder and MD of Advancetrack
