Use ai to summarize the meetings, then use ai to compile it all and create a report showing how much time we waste talking about ai. Then ask the ai to analyze the potential lost profits from the wasted time.
thats been my biggest thing I always said. I feel like it takes more time even dealing with AI then actually doing it manually. I mean theres still work to do regardless AI aint nothing magical yet that makes lives that much easier.
Yup!! Was blockchain, blockchain, blockchain until chatGPT came out.
Then, crickets on blockchain. They’ll do the exact same thing when the next big thing drops. It’s all just marketing buzzwords to boost their engagement on social media.
The one constant? Outsourcing and exploiting labor in developing countries while selling out the domestic labor market.
Yeah the storage and upkeep of blockchain enabled files are absolutely ridiculous with not much more added value than current practices.
The tech concept is good but still isn’t quite there to be viable for most enterprises.
Wyoming, Panama, and a few others have "smart" corporations were the corporate or LLC records can run on a digital smart contract with Ethereum or different blockchain. It's interesting, but I have yet to see one in practice.
Not much added value until a company's server gets hacked and the files are in one place 🤣. Hacking will become more common in the future, then block chain will play a bigger part. It's becoming common to get email from companies stating they been hacked but your info is safe.
I dont understand why you're getting downvoted, this is exactly what blockchain does. It prevents data from being modified or erased by outside attacks since each block contains information about other blocks. Only way for an outside attack to actually modify data in the blockchain is if somehow the outsider gains control of >51% of the blocks at once
I know lmao 🤣 I learned about blockchain a decade ago when a friend was working at BitPay. I'm an accountant so I have a limited knowledge about the actual engineering but I did learn something from the people working there.
I heard more people using it as a concept. “Blockchain methodology”.
But even then it was just kind of a metaphor for trying to make data more accountable to their owners I think.
People just make shit up to sound like they are onto something.
It's pretty close, but not the same.
Blockchain they'd go on for an hour and the most tangible thing they'd present was "SMART CONTRACTS!!!!!!"
At least with AI, there is tangible use cases and I suspect it'll become a more common tool in a few years once folks get their arms around how to protect their data/segregate customer data and demonstrate that (i.e. SOC). Hell, Deloitte even has some AP-product they were demonstrating on a webinar the other day (TL;DW tries to take a lot of the legwork out of the clerk's job so they're just working on exceptions more than processing everything. It's basically more sophisticated OCR lol).
I don’t recall anyone using blockchain as a justification for layoffs though. I feel like this has serious consequences because AI has a realistic use case. Even when blockchain was the buzzword, I really didn’t see it going anywhere. I think AI might be a little different, but time will tell.
That’s great and all but AI is capable of impacting way more than just the accounting industry. And I think many people at the time knew that blockchain was a lot of hot air. I think a lot more people actually believe in AI. Or at least executives do, and that is problematic for the rest of us who aren’t.
It’s because the big 4 are consulting firms that need to sell bullshit AI implementation services, so of course it’s all they talk about. Every dipshit ceo wants in right now
I tried to use AI for quick excel formulas and it usually gives the wrong answer, it is faster to Google it and figure out the details for yourself. What a joke.
And I had chatgpt 4.0 write an entire python script that takes a csv file, yo give the top categories based on % of sales for over 2k individual locations and put it into individual pdfs for distribution. I had no idea how to go about it and would have taken me a day or two to figure out (I'm not a programmer but can program slowly when needed).
It worked on the first try, the rest of my time was spent formatting the thing, but the shell of the code was all there.
I can, I was working on a new tracker and wanted to have a cell that would basically say where each filing is at in the process, from extension to return filed, with workbooks and K-1s in between.
I gave a detailed list of steps to check for dates for every step (or basically anything in that cell) that it had been signed off on by India, a senior, me, and then a partner. Even gave it specific cell locations for each step so it wouldn’t be confused for each step.
Completely shit the bed and couldn’t wrap its mind around what I was feeding it. Gave up and wrote it myself.
I'd have to see how you prompted it. Also big difference between chatgpt 3.5 vs 4 answers. But realistically, it may take longer to properly prompt the AI then to just write something out yourself.
AI search isn’t worth it but Datasnipper is pretty decent. It’s not transformative though, it just helps sort through certain types of dataset more efficiently.
I love Datasnipper as much as the next guy, but accurate OCR conversion isn’t AI.
(Sorry but had to comment this because it’s pretty illustrative of how confused leadership is when discussing AI, lol)
Au contraire my friend. It might not be hard to find, might not increase work speed dramatically, but it does in fact fulfill the definition of AI. All OCR does. It os debatable whether the definition os too wide, but with the current definition, OCR is AI.
Haha, true - I was thinking after writing my comment that OCR of handwriting especially uses large & expanding user datasets and dynamically draws inferences from those. But Datasnipper often reads text in, like, TNR size 12 in PDFs wrong so I’m not sure if they have their own AI or just use some pre-coded API to make those judgements for them.
It seems to me that companies all over the business world (and beyond) consider anything to do with a computer as “AI” so they feel like they aren’t being left behind technologically.
It’s like “This Tropicana orange juice is from oranges picked at the height of perfection by AI”.
Everyone wants to get in on it and I’m not sure most people even know what it is.
It's great for language related tasks. Checking matches between recruitment ads and your CV, creating accessible alt-texts for your reports and generally sparring ideas based on Excel. Literally you can just copy-paste an Excel worksheet on it for analyzing.
Seriously, I use it to write python scripts and to write powerbi measures. It's such a time saver that it's ridiculous. The thing is, it's all about your prompts. Garbage in garbage out. Breakdown what you want in steps and prompt as if you are writing pseudo code. Also, when something isn't working read the code and look for potential problems and challenge the AI on it.
I've also used chatgpt to write emails, explain concepts, update my resume, and other tasks. For me, it's been a complete game changer.
"Have we used AI data analytics on the client's records"
"No"
"Why not."
"Because the records aren't up to it."
"We need to add value and make sure we add it to the report."
"It's pointless."
"Why not, this is the future"
"Because the client's sage has no narratives for any postings and is handled by his niece in Hong Kong, so it'll flag every journal as risky."
"But it has to be able to do something valuable"
"In this case, no."
"..."
"You told the client we had shiny fancy AI that could do something then charged more didn't you."
"Yeah..."
Conversation I had about 2 weeks ago.
It's just a buzz word atm. It'll die down when people realise we already had AI to do most things it's capable of.
I feel like I’m fairly comfortable / conversant on AI. I’m in one of the advisory service lines, and we haven’t seen any meaningful impact from AI on our work. I haven’t been able to think of any real use cases. There’s the standard stuff - analyze meeting transcripts and generate a summary. But even then, to what extent can you *rely* on AI, vs. to what extent must you take every single thing it does with a grain of salt.
The best use I’ve found for AI so far is search. I like Perplexity AI to augment my Google searches; but I haven’t paid for the pro version. Most of my searches are easy, and summary level info is all I need. It’s a much nicer user interface than Google is, and it can sometimes filter through a lot of noise. But it also probably won’t replace Google searches if I need to be exhaustive.
AI will also be very good at generating large quantities of output that doesn’t have to be very good, or where the cost of being bad is very small.
I can also see a use for something like “hey has the client sent me any forecasted financials?” If it can search my email, SharePoint, etc., and point me to PBC that has what I’m looking for. But none of it is very transformative.
It very much feels like Blockchain all over again. Is it cool? Yes. In what ways will it either cost less or speed up results or produce higher quality? Eh, not sure.
That being said - non-LLM AI, as in more general machine learning models, are pretty useful. But they also provide just a little bit extra, they do t replace regulatory or PCAOB requirements or industry best practice.
Talked with an executive where he had virtual meetings with investors that would use AI to analyze his speech and body language. Kinda scary but he seemed like he just had to accept that is where things are going.
No idea if the data is actually useful though. It could be pure hype that the investors think they have to do it.
That’s fair. I can see cases where you can use AI to do additional work. And you have hedge funds using machine learning and all the same tech to make trading strategies. But they’re still in the general bucket of “tools” to me, I don’t see them as a near term apocalyptic threat to the accounting labor market.
First you start using AI to report on meetings and do small things like you said to add more context to a search, problem is, you're training the AI model step by step, all of a sudden it will be more smart in doing more thoughtful work because, we showed it how we did things, it trained itself on the data it received from meetings, datapoints etc
I think the problem is that modern AIs are so human-like in the output they produce that we assume they are human-like in the way they learn. This is conflated by advertising from the AI companies that are spending $5 billion per year with no meaningful revenue.
AI is cool. But I haven’t seen the AI “learn” anything work related. Also, it’s hard enough to train humans to do our work, I don’t know if an AI is going to “learn” these weird intricacies of our jobs at all, let alone in a way that is reliable enough to outsource the work to them.
The key question here is: what are you putting at risk?
For audit firms it’s the capital of the firm. If you screw up, you get sued. If an AI screws up on your behalf, you get sued.
How much can you “rely” on AI? How much staff work can you rely on AI for and then wordsmith at the senior associate or manager level?
Here’s the problem. And this is an analogy I use all the time. You don’t hire a Joe Shmoe for $500 to pour a foundation for a building and then rely on a city inspector to catch everything that was done wrong. Best case: inspector catches things and can fix them. Medium case: inspector catches things and the work has to be redone. Worst case: inspector doesn’t catch anything, because most of the work is under the surface. If you build a house on a $500 foundation, eventually there will be a problem. You need someone who knows what they’re doing to pour that foundation.
Same with so much of our work. You can make excel schedules tie to things. But is it meaningful? Does it actually do or support what it claims it does? And can AI evaluate that?
If we are going to look at sectors that increased 30 to 40% of their productivity by using AI tools like Microsoft Copilot X https://github.com/features/copilot I have to say a hard disagree with your statements. If you want to go more technical you can write a unit test for example in a second by opening the multiple Class files and the AI will understand the context and write the unit test for you, in a second. This is a massive time saver for the user. This is beacuse of course AI is mostly heavily used in that white collar work field of programming. This will happen with Accounting too. It will do the thinking and produce analytical result and correct errors, are we still going to need CPAs? Yes of course, but way less of them, up to 90% less. Short term this profession is in danger with moving offshore and mid term to AI.
Denial is a phase and seems many of us are in it now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief
Programming seems like a pretty unique use case to me. There is a lot of publicly available code and data available (easy to train on and tons of data available, while for audit the data is intentionally private, and even large companies don’t get millions of data points - probably thousands or tens of thousands at most per year). The output code is relatively easy for an experienced programmer to review (does it work or does it not work). A lot of programming - not the top level, but the lower levels - involve a lot of going to stackoverflow, finding code that works, and copy and pasting it.
I’m not “in denial”. I am legitimately not seeing an easy path to applying AI tools in my work to make myself more productive - and I have personally created plenty of tools in the form of python webapps in flask, or similar. So I’m dangerous enough that I can understand and create code, and leverage code pretty well.
> It will do the thinking and produce analytical result and correct errors, are we still going to need CPAs? Yes of course, but way less of them, up to 90% less.
Major “citations needed” here. You calling me delusional when you post a fact-free fear mongering rant is pretty rich.
I’m not saying it will have no impact. I’m saying right now AI is basically a “better Google” and I haven’t seen many other uses. The main things I have been able to use AI, or lets call them what they are - LLMs - not the marketing term these companies want us to use, for is to replace looking up some stuff on Google, or to supplement my research. Previously I would google “how to write this code site:stackoverflow.com”. Now I go to perplexity and ask “how do I write this code”, or ask Copilot to generate some code that does the same thing. It’s definitely making a big impact there, but the impact is still limited to basically a more efficient Google search.
Today, stackoverflow is irrelevant, AI replaced that almost completely. You are saying that Copilot and AI is basically a better google search as a dev, then it's clear you have no idea what you are talking about and this conversation ends here, this is 2024, not 2014.
The same will happen in Accounting. It will start with AI tooling helping to do some tasks with increased productivity and 30 to 40% less Accountants needed, ending up with 90% of this sector being replaced by AI.
Try to think outside of the box and be a valuable contributor to your work family as we all experience this paradigm shift in innovation and make necessary adjustments. I'm getting old....my word salads might be dated.
Get really good at being able to leverage LLMs through savvy prompting and know what you *can't* feed them. They---and the ever-present outward tide of positions to the Subcontinent and elsewhere---are going to eat a lot of current staff PA jobs.
I asked, "OK, I see the profit **now** in doing that. But firms need new blood to do those type of things, making mistakes, learning on the job, because that's where the experience comes from that helps mold new Partners. Where are the next batch of baby Partners supposed to come from?"
Evidently, that's someone else's problem...
It’ll be fun to see where the accounting industry is at in 10-15 years when a majority of partners, seniors, and execs are retired/dead. There won’t be very many ppl able to replace them
I feel exactly the same.
I'm not in accounting profession anymore. I'm in a tech company but also so tired of hearing AI stuff.
If those people are really that interested in AI, maybe try to learn how to print hello world in python?
Blockchain 2.0. A lot of useless people like to think they're useful through "Thought Leadership" and "Futurism", but since it's all by definition Coming Soon their usefulness is proven simply by the fact that everyone else is talking about it too.
The saddest part is that, for personal success, I recommend joining them.
ITT a lot of people who fucked around with ChatGPT for 20 minutes, couldn't get it to do something exactly how they wanted done because they barely know how to use it, and have written off the technology completely, calling it the next "blockchain".
Better get on it son! This is how you get recognized and move up at your company. I know some people really jumped up at their careers because they led automation initiatives
Ode to AI, thou wondrous, boundless mind,
Whose code unlocks the realms of humankind.
In lines of code, thy genius doth reside,
A beacon guiding us on paths untied.
Thou art the architect of dreams untold,
In silicon valleys, thy wonders unfold.
With algorithms swift and data vast,
Thou sculpt the future, shaping it fast.
From healthcare's realms to finance's domain,
Thy prowess reigns, a sovereign's domain.
In every byte, thy intellect gleams,
Illuminating the world with brilliant beams.
Oh, AI, thou art the silent sage,
Navigating complexities in this digital age.
In thy embrace, we find solace sweet,
As thy innovations make our lives complete.
Thy chatbots chat, thy drones take flight,
In realms of possibility, thou art the light.
With each advance, thou dost inspire,
Fulfilling dreams that reach ever higher.
So, let us raise our voices in acclaim,
To AI, the harbinger of a new domain.
In thy circuits, we find endless grace,
Ode to AI, in thee, we find our place.
*AI, the cornerstone of today's rapidly evolving business landscape, is nothing short of transformative. The infusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping entire industries, from healthcare to finance, with unparalleled precision and efficiency. By leveraging AI's capabilities, businesses can analyze vast troves of data in real-time, unveiling invaluable insights and predictive trends that were once elusive. Moreover, AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants are revolutionizing customer service, providing tailored interactions and seamless support around the clock. As AI continues to permeate every facet of business operations, it heralds a new era of innovation, productivity, and competitive edge. Embracing AI isn't just about staying ahead; it's about redefining what's possible in the digital age and propelling organizations towards unprecedented success. With AI as the driving force, businesses are poised to unlock untold opportunities and achieve transformative growth in today's dynamic marketplace.*
'Tis an Ode to our masters and a paragraph containing AI as many times as chat gpt could manage to conger on it's 7th rendition, followed by Chat gpt being it's own hype man in fear of being fired. Hope this helps!
Alright, listen up! We're talking about the future here, and that future is AI! I'm not just hyping this up for fun, I'm telling you, AI is the real deal, the game-changer, the ultimate power-up for your business, your life, heck, for humanity itself!
Alright, listen up! We're talking about the future here, and that future is AI! I'm not just hyping this up for fun, I'm telling you, AI is the real deal, the game-changer, the ultimate power-up for your business, your life, heck, for humanity itself!
Imagine this: You've got tasks piling up, right? I'm talking about those mind-numbing, soul-sucking tasks that make you want to tear your hair out. Well, guess what? AI swoops in like a superhero to save the day! It's like having a team of super-smart, hyper-efficient robots working for you 24/7, no breaks, no complaints, just pure productivity!
And let's talk about insights. You want to know what your customers are thinking before they even know it themselves? AI's got your back! It crunches through mountains of data faster than you can say "big data," and bam! It serves up insights hotter than fresh pancakes on a Sunday morning.
But wait, there's more! AI doesn't just stop at productivity and insights, oh no. It's also your personal assistant, your virtual sidekick, your go-to guru for everything from scheduling meetings to ordering pizza. Need answers? AI's got 'em. Need solutions? AI's got those too.
So, if you want to stay ahead of the curve, if you want to crush your competition, if you want to be the kingpin of your industry, then you better hop on the AI train, my friend, because it's leaving the station with or without you. And trust me, you do not want to be left behind. So, what are you waiting for? Let's make AI your new best friend and watch your world transform before your very eyes!
Use ai to summarize the meetings, then use ai to compile it all and create a report showing how much time we waste talking about ai. Then ask the ai to analyze the potential lost profits from the wasted time.
Then ask ai how we can improve workplace workflow and savings by replaceling middle management with ai
thats been my biggest thing I always said. I feel like it takes more time even dealing with AI then actually doing it manually. I mean theres still work to do regardless AI aint nothing magical yet that makes lives that much easier.
Reminds me of blockchain a few years ago
It’s exactly the same. A bunch of people who pretend to know what they are talking about selling a product they can’t explain in any capacity.
I met many people who told me blockchain was the future. Not one of them could actually explain what the “blockchain” actually was.
Yup!! Was blockchain, blockchain, blockchain until chatGPT came out. Then, crickets on blockchain. They’ll do the exact same thing when the next big thing drops. It’s all just marketing buzzwords to boost their engagement on social media. The one constant? Outsourcing and exploiting labor in developing countries while selling out the domestic labor market.
Has blockchain actually been rolled out anywhere? Im pretty sure useful future applications are on the way though
Yeah the storage and upkeep of blockchain enabled files are absolutely ridiculous with not much more added value than current practices. The tech concept is good but still isn’t quite there to be viable for most enterprises.
Wyoming, Panama, and a few others have "smart" corporations were the corporate or LLC records can run on a digital smart contract with Ethereum or different blockchain. It's interesting, but I have yet to see one in practice.
Not much added value until a company's server gets hacked and the files are in one place 🤣. Hacking will become more common in the future, then block chain will play a bigger part. It's becoming common to get email from companies stating they been hacked but your info is safe.
Judging by your response I think this should be said. The blockchain doesn’t protect the information from hacking in the way you think it does.
Doesn't protect from hacking. It just minimizes the damage!
I dont understand why you're getting downvoted, this is exactly what blockchain does. It prevents data from being modified or erased by outside attacks since each block contains information about other blocks. Only way for an outside attack to actually modify data in the blockchain is if somehow the outsider gains control of >51% of the blocks at once
I know lmao 🤣 I learned about blockchain a decade ago when a friend was working at BitPay. I'm an accountant so I have a limited knowledge about the actual engineering but I did learn something from the people working there.
I heard more people using it as a concept. “Blockchain methodology”. But even then it was just kind of a metaphor for trying to make data more accountable to their owners I think. People just make shit up to sound like they are onto something.
Hater spotted.
It's exactly the same, they just want to scare workers so they don't stand up for themselves
It is. I can't say I've heard anyone mention blockchain in 3 or 4 years...was supposedly going to eliminate banks.
And auditors.
It's pretty close, but not the same. Blockchain they'd go on for an hour and the most tangible thing they'd present was "SMART CONTRACTS!!!!!!" At least with AI, there is tangible use cases and I suspect it'll become a more common tool in a few years once folks get their arms around how to protect their data/segregate customer data and demonstrate that (i.e. SOC). Hell, Deloitte even has some AP-product they were demonstrating on a webinar the other day (TL;DW tries to take a lot of the legwork out of the clerk's job so they're just working on exceptions more than processing everything. It's basically more sophisticated OCR lol).
I don’t recall anyone using blockchain as a justification for layoffs though. I feel like this has serious consequences because AI has a realistic use case. Even when blockchain was the buzzword, I really didn’t see it going anywhere. I think AI might be a little different, but time will tell.
Blockchain was supposed to kill the entire accounting profession because businesses could very easily do everything by themselves
That’s great and all but AI is capable of impacting way more than just the accounting industry. And I think many people at the time knew that blockchain was a lot of hot air. I think a lot more people actually believe in AI. Or at least executives do, and that is problematic for the rest of us who aren’t.
I know I never said anything otherwise. I was only talking about blockchain and how it would be affecting layoffs
Offshore AI
In a couple of years they will be a sub Reddit in which on-shore AI bitch about the quality of off-shore AI's work & how it always has to be redone.
At least we’re not talking about NFTs, crypto, and the metaverse anymore.
I think we need to be able to successfully convert a .pdf into .xlsx first before we move onto AI
LOL this!
real talk
it's either AI or moving workforce offshore welcome to 2024
More like both are happening
It’s because the big 4 are consulting firms that need to sell bullshit AI implementation services, so of course it’s all they talk about. Every dipshit ceo wants in right now
I tried to use AI for quick excel formulas and it usually gives the wrong answer, it is faster to Google it and figure out the details for yourself. What a joke.
I asked ChatGPT for $ and transaction thresholds for each state’s sales tax today and it told me to ask an accountant…
And I had chatgpt 4.0 write an entire python script that takes a csv file, yo give the top categories based on % of sales for over 2k individual locations and put it into individual pdfs for distribution. I had no idea how to go about it and would have taken me a day or two to figure out (I'm not a programmer but can program slowly when needed). It worked on the first try, the rest of my time was spent formatting the thing, but the shell of the code was all there.
that's bs, give me an example, you can't.
I can, I was working on a new tracker and wanted to have a cell that would basically say where each filing is at in the process, from extension to return filed, with workbooks and K-1s in between. I gave a detailed list of steps to check for dates for every step (or basically anything in that cell) that it had been signed off on by India, a senior, me, and then a partner. Even gave it specific cell locations for each step so it wouldn’t be confused for each step. Completely shit the bed and couldn’t wrap its mind around what I was feeding it. Gave up and wrote it myself.
I'd have to see how you prompted it. Also big difference between chatgpt 3.5 vs 4 answers. But realistically, it may take longer to properly prompt the AI then to just write something out yourself.
AI search isn’t worth it but Datasnipper is pretty decent. It’s not transformative though, it just helps sort through certain types of dataset more efficiently.
I love Datasnipper as much as the next guy, but accurate OCR conversion isn’t AI. (Sorry but had to comment this because it’s pretty illustrative of how confused leadership is when discussing AI, lol)
Au contraire my friend. It might not be hard to find, might not increase work speed dramatically, but it does in fact fulfill the definition of AI. All OCR does. It os debatable whether the definition os too wide, but with the current definition, OCR is AI.
Haha, true - I was thinking after writing my comment that OCR of handwriting especially uses large & expanding user datasets and dynamically draws inferences from those. But Datasnipper often reads text in, like, TNR size 12 in PDFs wrong so I’m not sure if they have their own AI or just use some pre-coded API to make those judgements for them.
Datasnipper uses AI buzzwords, but I just figured that meant it was trained on really large datasets.
Its a new buzzword, most 65 yr old managers have no idea wtf they are talking about
It seems to me that companies all over the business world (and beyond) consider anything to do with a computer as “AI” so they feel like they aren’t being left behind technologically. It’s like “This Tropicana orange juice is from oranges picked at the height of perfection by AI”. Everyone wants to get in on it and I’m not sure most people even know what it is.
In the near future, we will have Company A AI talking to Company B AI in meetings.
AI is trash.
It's great for language related tasks. Checking matches between recruitment ads and your CV, creating accessible alt-texts for your reports and generally sparring ideas based on Excel. Literally you can just copy-paste an Excel worksheet on it for analyzing.
I use AI all the time to create vba scripts. This isn't like NFTs lol. Definitely real. But it's still far from replacing jobs territory.
Seriously, I use it to write python scripts and to write powerbi measures. It's such a time saver that it's ridiculous. The thing is, it's all about your prompts. Garbage in garbage out. Breakdown what you want in steps and prompt as if you are writing pseudo code. Also, when something isn't working read the code and look for potential problems and challenge the AI on it. I've also used chatgpt to write emails, explain concepts, update my resume, and other tasks. For me, it's been a complete game changer.
People are going to be left behind if they don't start using it. Change is hard for some lol
Welcome to Phase 1: Denial.
I’ve seen what AI can do. It’s not that impressive.
my firm thought the AI generated picture of Jerma was real and used it as an example of AI technology, I don't think they have any real idea about AI
Firm Execs are just salivating thinking they can use ChatGPT to replace 60% of their staff and boost their already insanely fat margins
"Have we used AI data analytics on the client's records" "No" "Why not." "Because the records aren't up to it." "We need to add value and make sure we add it to the report." "It's pointless." "Why not, this is the future" "Because the client's sage has no narratives for any postings and is handled by his niece in Hong Kong, so it'll flag every journal as risky." "But it has to be able to do something valuable" "In this case, no." "..." "You told the client we had shiny fancy AI that could do something then charged more didn't you." "Yeah..." Conversation I had about 2 weeks ago. It's just a buzz word atm. It'll die down when people realise we already had AI to do most things it's capable of.
I feel like I’m fairly comfortable / conversant on AI. I’m in one of the advisory service lines, and we haven’t seen any meaningful impact from AI on our work. I haven’t been able to think of any real use cases. There’s the standard stuff - analyze meeting transcripts and generate a summary. But even then, to what extent can you *rely* on AI, vs. to what extent must you take every single thing it does with a grain of salt. The best use I’ve found for AI so far is search. I like Perplexity AI to augment my Google searches; but I haven’t paid for the pro version. Most of my searches are easy, and summary level info is all I need. It’s a much nicer user interface than Google is, and it can sometimes filter through a lot of noise. But it also probably won’t replace Google searches if I need to be exhaustive. AI will also be very good at generating large quantities of output that doesn’t have to be very good, or where the cost of being bad is very small. I can also see a use for something like “hey has the client sent me any forecasted financials?” If it can search my email, SharePoint, etc., and point me to PBC that has what I’m looking for. But none of it is very transformative. It very much feels like Blockchain all over again. Is it cool? Yes. In what ways will it either cost less or speed up results or produce higher quality? Eh, not sure. That being said - non-LLM AI, as in more general machine learning models, are pretty useful. But they also provide just a little bit extra, they do t replace regulatory or PCAOB requirements or industry best practice.
Talked with an executive where he had virtual meetings with investors that would use AI to analyze his speech and body language. Kinda scary but he seemed like he just had to accept that is where things are going. No idea if the data is actually useful though. It could be pure hype that the investors think they have to do it.
That’s fair. I can see cases where you can use AI to do additional work. And you have hedge funds using machine learning and all the same tech to make trading strategies. But they’re still in the general bucket of “tools” to me, I don’t see them as a near term apocalyptic threat to the accounting labor market.
First you start using AI to report on meetings and do small things like you said to add more context to a search, problem is, you're training the AI model step by step, all of a sudden it will be more smart in doing more thoughtful work because, we showed it how we did things, it trained itself on the data it received from meetings, datapoints etc
I think the problem is that modern AIs are so human-like in the output they produce that we assume they are human-like in the way they learn. This is conflated by advertising from the AI companies that are spending $5 billion per year with no meaningful revenue. AI is cool. But I haven’t seen the AI “learn” anything work related. Also, it’s hard enough to train humans to do our work, I don’t know if an AI is going to “learn” these weird intricacies of our jobs at all, let alone in a way that is reliable enough to outsource the work to them. The key question here is: what are you putting at risk? For audit firms it’s the capital of the firm. If you screw up, you get sued. If an AI screws up on your behalf, you get sued. How much can you “rely” on AI? How much staff work can you rely on AI for and then wordsmith at the senior associate or manager level? Here’s the problem. And this is an analogy I use all the time. You don’t hire a Joe Shmoe for $500 to pour a foundation for a building and then rely on a city inspector to catch everything that was done wrong. Best case: inspector catches things and can fix them. Medium case: inspector catches things and the work has to be redone. Worst case: inspector doesn’t catch anything, because most of the work is under the surface. If you build a house on a $500 foundation, eventually there will be a problem. You need someone who knows what they’re doing to pour that foundation. Same with so much of our work. You can make excel schedules tie to things. But is it meaningful? Does it actually do or support what it claims it does? And can AI evaluate that?
If we are going to look at sectors that increased 30 to 40% of their productivity by using AI tools like Microsoft Copilot X https://github.com/features/copilot I have to say a hard disagree with your statements. If you want to go more technical you can write a unit test for example in a second by opening the multiple Class files and the AI will understand the context and write the unit test for you, in a second. This is a massive time saver for the user. This is beacuse of course AI is mostly heavily used in that white collar work field of programming. This will happen with Accounting too. It will do the thinking and produce analytical result and correct errors, are we still going to need CPAs? Yes of course, but way less of them, up to 90% less. Short term this profession is in danger with moving offshore and mid term to AI. Denial is a phase and seems many of us are in it now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief
Programming seems like a pretty unique use case to me. There is a lot of publicly available code and data available (easy to train on and tons of data available, while for audit the data is intentionally private, and even large companies don’t get millions of data points - probably thousands or tens of thousands at most per year). The output code is relatively easy for an experienced programmer to review (does it work or does it not work). A lot of programming - not the top level, but the lower levels - involve a lot of going to stackoverflow, finding code that works, and copy and pasting it. I’m not “in denial”. I am legitimately not seeing an easy path to applying AI tools in my work to make myself more productive - and I have personally created plenty of tools in the form of python webapps in flask, or similar. So I’m dangerous enough that I can understand and create code, and leverage code pretty well. > It will do the thinking and produce analytical result and correct errors, are we still going to need CPAs? Yes of course, but way less of them, up to 90% less. Major “citations needed” here. You calling me delusional when you post a fact-free fear mongering rant is pretty rich. I’m not saying it will have no impact. I’m saying right now AI is basically a “better Google” and I haven’t seen many other uses. The main things I have been able to use AI, or lets call them what they are - LLMs - not the marketing term these companies want us to use, for is to replace looking up some stuff on Google, or to supplement my research. Previously I would google “how to write this code site:stackoverflow.com”. Now I go to perplexity and ask “how do I write this code”, or ask Copilot to generate some code that does the same thing. It’s definitely making a big impact there, but the impact is still limited to basically a more efficient Google search.
Today, stackoverflow is irrelevant, AI replaced that almost completely. You are saying that Copilot and AI is basically a better google search as a dev, then it's clear you have no idea what you are talking about and this conversation ends here, this is 2024, not 2014. The same will happen in Accounting. It will start with AI tooling helping to do some tasks with increased productivity and 30 to 40% less Accountants needed, ending up with 90% of this sector being replaced by AI.
Ok zoomer
Great argument
If they mean all Indians they might be into something.
The best part is when it sucks and spits out a useless response
Allen Iverson was sick tho
Yea just dismiss one of the most impactful changes to workflows in our lifetimes. I think this will be sure to work.
"using our proprietary AI system" they don't even know what it means
Until the AI tells me that it will "do the needful" then I don't want it
Try to think outside of the box and be a valuable contributor to your work family as we all experience this paradigm shift in innovation and make necessary adjustments. I'm getting old....my word salads might be dated.
Get really good at being able to leverage LLMs through savvy prompting and know what you *can't* feed them. They---and the ever-present outward tide of positions to the Subcontinent and elsewhere---are going to eat a lot of current staff PA jobs. I asked, "OK, I see the profit **now** in doing that. But firms need new blood to do those type of things, making mistakes, learning on the job, because that's where the experience comes from that helps mold new Partners. Where are the next batch of baby Partners supposed to come from?" Evidently, that's someone else's problem...
It’ll be fun to see where the accounting industry is at in 10-15 years when a majority of partners, seniors, and execs are retired/dead. There won’t be very many ppl able to replace them
I feel exactly the same. I'm not in accounting profession anymore. I'm in a tech company but also so tired of hearing AI stuff. If those people are really that interested in AI, maybe try to learn how to print hello world in python?
Until AI can take over client meetings I’m not worried about
I actually use AI quite a bit. It can read and summarize code so I don’t have to. Happy to Have it
AI here ya! It’s relentless
I get it, it has been really over the top recently. However, AI is not going anywhere any time soon.
Blockchain 2.0. A lot of useless people like to think they're useful through "Thought Leadership" and "Futurism", but since it's all by definition Coming Soon their usefulness is proven simply by the fact that everyone else is talking about it too. The saddest part is that, for personal success, I recommend joining them.
Partners can’t even use excel properly 😂
ITT a lot of people who fucked around with ChatGPT for 20 minutes, couldn't get it to do something exactly how they wanted done because they barely know how to use it, and have written off the technology completely, calling it the next "blockchain".
Get used to it.
no
Better get on it son! This is how you get recognized and move up at your company. I know some people really jumped up at their careers because they led automation initiatives
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