Are Accountants Fit To Be Guardians Of AI?

Now we have AI do we still need to teach accounting students debits and credits?  Shouldn’t we instead be teaching them how to use software and AI tools?  We hear that a lot.  So when Blake Oliver and Adam Zaki (CFO.com) got talking about this on The Accounting Podcast my ears pricked up.   

Adam and Blake were reflecting on the desire of students to get more practical learning opportunities – to learn things like QuickBooks, Xero or Gusto, and the outputs of all the AI agents now providing more financial insights.   

But Adam’s view was fascinating  “I think that accounting students and young accountants really need to realize that they are going to be checking AI, and they are going to be the auditors and the police of the technology being used. So although they're learning [in college] stuff that maybe they aren't using, like you and I both learned trigonometry in school, right? We're not using trigonometry, but it's the thought patterns. It's the thinking process. It's how to evaluate information and collaborate with others around you. When there's a problem or a challenge, and learning how to think and approach information in different ways. That's what's important.” 

“But to the young professionals, my message to them is that decision makers at Big 4 firms are relying on young people to back up all of the technology they are selling. And if the young people don't know the fundamentals of accounting, they will not be able to fulfil that duty. Then the technology that's being sold and bought by CFOs is going to go nowhere, right? It will ultimately fail if the technology cannot fulfil the functions because the people checking it don't know what they're doing. I think it's so important to stress to young accountants that if you were in school and you're like, I'm not going to use this, why am I learning this? It's about the thinking process. It's the same reason why you learn trigonometry in high school, because you need to learn how to formulate and evaluate in order to do these types of jobs, in order to be strategic and make decisions based on data. You have to be able to evaluate.  You have to be able to think like a human being in the context of the information that's being presented to you. And without that education, that's going to be so hard.” 

I don’t believe this means the current college education system is necessarily fit for purpose at all.  But teaching and learning the fundamentals is still, and will continue to be, critical for the success of both the profession and business.   

Adam and Blake in the podcast went on to note that some (many?) accounting students can graduate already without knowing double entry accounting, or being able to generate a cashflow statement from a trial balance.  So we have some work to do before we can be confident young accounting professionals can be the guardians to keep business safe from AI.  Inevitably we’re going to hear of disasters caused by AI driven financial decisions through lack of oversight.  Remember CDOs and CDSs…..?  Oversight?   

Adam Zaki is a reporter with CFO.com : LinkedIn

Blake Oliver is a host on The Accounting Podcast : LinkedIn