Levi Morehouse, Ceterus CEO Discusses the Bright Future of Accounting
Will accountants be replaced by robots?
This is a question that weighs on the minds of many forward thinking professionals in the financial industry. Levi Morehouse, Ceterus Founder and CEO, weighs in on the topic with an optimistic outlook in an article in Forbes and a video presentation for the Ohio Society of CPAs.
I believe that advances in technologies like AI, machine learning and predictive analytics have helped alleviate and automate the overwhelming amount of process work required across industries. By eliminating tedious tasks, there is now an enormous opportunity for finance professionals to reinvent themselves and become strategic solution providers to their organizations.
Morehouse argues that unlike the doom and gloom you often read about in the blogosphere, professionals in any industry, but the financial industry in particular, should look forward to the opportunities that AI and machine learning will afford them in the future. AI and machine learning will increase the amount of specialization in every industry. Morehouse tells us that the need to choose your path in your career becomes even more important:
Specifically, I believe today’s professionals can be empowered to pick one of two strategic paths: They can either become communicators of critical business data and information, empowered to advise key stakeholders on business initiatives based on keen insight; or they can become experts in redesigning traditional industry processes to be more efficient by leveraging modern technology.
In the era of automation and AI, professionals will either:
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Specialize in leveraging AI and machine learning to architect business processes, or
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Focus on the process work completed by AI and communicating its meaningful information to their clients to help provide them with a solution for their business.
But where are we now, where are we headed, and what does the future look like for accounting professionals with all the new technology available?
Morehouse goes into more detail on how this will look for accountants and the accounting industry in his video presentation for the Ohio Society of CPAs, detailing how AI, machine learning, blockchain, and automation will impact the jobs of accountants now and in the future.
While technologies like cloud accounting, automation, integration, and big data capabilities like benchmarking are here now, there are things coming right around the corner like AI and machine learning powered automation, automated financing and approvals, and AI and machine learning powered financial predictions.
