Accountants must embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) or get replaced, experts now say, according to the Star, amid continued disruption in the industry.
This emerged, as the World Economic Forum lists AI and big data top on the list of the fastest-growing skills that will be needed in the next five years.
Within financial services and capital markets, employers predict that the share of tasks done predominantly by people today will shrink from 44 per cent today to 28 per cent in 2030.
The call to integrate AI in accounting comes as accountants drawn from around the world meet in Nairobi to discuss, among other topics, the disruption that artificial intelligence is causing in the accounting sector.
Coincidentally, the meeting is taking place a few weeks after DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, made headlines worldwide after launching an AI model that outperformed existing American models, for a fraction of cost.
“We cannot wish away AI. It is here with us, and we expect newer more advanced versions to be released into the corporate world in the coming years. Accountants must prepare to utilise these tools within the law and in an ethical way,” said Juan Carlos Lara, chief digital officer at Crowe Global.
The recently published 2025 Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – which took place in Davos in January–predicts that utilisation of machines and algorithms will grow in the next five years.
The report notes that 47 per cent of work tasks today are performed mainly by humans alone with 22 per cent performed mainly by technology and 30 per cent completed by a combination of both.
Yet, by 2030, employers expect these proportions to be almost evenly split.
