This spring, I wrote a post on Energy Central about a stubborn problem bugging utilities, along with the rest of corporate America:
"There still aren’t enough accountants. About two years after corporate America became aware of the dearth of bookkeepers, the trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The consequences of the labor shortage are popping in diverse sections of the economy, from private to public. According to this Bloomberg article, many understaffed municipalities have had to delay projects because they’ve failed to file basic financial information. Utilities should be proactive to avoid similar problems."
In that same post, I explained what many accounting experts were blaming for the shortage of bookkeepers:
“People these days just don’t want to do accounting. College students don’t want to major in it, those who major in it often look for other jobs after graduation, and as I mentioned earlier, many accountants are transitioning to other roles.
As you could probably imagine, the work-reward ratio doesn’t tilt in accountants’ favor in the new economy. The major is hard and you need about 30 extra college credits to become accredited, about a whole extra year of school. The job can be grueling at times, requiring 70-80 hour weeks during tax season. And even with recent pay bumps, compensation lags far behind comparable tech and finance positions.”
In that post, I posited that there was probably little companies could do to entice accountants. Instead, I thought there was a better chance that artificial intelligence would solve the problem.
Recently, I did a bit of research on artificial intelligence news in accounting. What I found wasn’t that different from AI news/talk in other sectors: New artificial intelligence is making it easier for accountants to do their jobs. Some are worried that the technology will eventually take their jobs, but most articles on the subject say this won’t happen.
Here are some excerpts I found insightful from a recent post on entrepreneur.com:
“AI automation allows businesses to handle more significant amounts of data without compromising accuracy or efficiency. This scalability enables organizations to streamline their bookkeeping processes, reducing costs and improving operational efficiency.”
“AI-powered bookkeeping systems can now integrate with various data sources, such as bank feeds and payment gateways, enabling real-time processing and analysis of financial data in a matter of seconds.”
“Optical character recognition (OCR) technology allows AI algorithms to accurately extract relevant information from invoices, receipts and other financial documents, which then eliminates the need for manual input.”
The post’s author is optimistic that these tools won’t take any accounting jobs for the moment. I think he’s wrong, and that’s a good thing. There’s a huge dearth of accountants right now, so technology that replaces accountants is exactly what everyone needs, and accountants more than anyone else. No sane minded person enjoys data entry. If the tech replaces accountants, that means junior accountants will just be promoted into more stimulating positions. Right?
Some of these tools are already here and they’re probably already helping alleviate the accountant shortage. The question is when they will end the shortage once and for all. My guess is that it won’t be for a while. We tend to overestimate how quickly new technologies will change society, and underestimate how profoundly the changes will be.