Technology will have an impact how the profession recruits and trains staff.

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) is the unavoidable technology story of the moment, and one particularly vibrant topic of discussion is AI’s potential impact on jobs.

Technology is generally seen as having a positive impact on the labour market, but the rise of AI has disrupted that consensus, given its ability to automate higher-order intellectual activities.

Emerging research appears to substantiate this view, signalling that AI will not only have a significant destructive effect on some occupations but will also impose significant changes on the wider workforce.

What is not yet clear is the form these changes will take, which occupations are likely to be altered and which are likely to be eliminated.

AI-vulnerable

To develop a clearer picture of this future, ACCA examined the tax and accounting professions. It began with mapping the specific tasks practitioners carry out according to different career levels, and then modelled the vulnerability of each task to AI automation.

The analysis suggests that tax and accounting professions will not be immune to the impact of AI, with a significant number of tasks likely to be automated in the near future.

Taking a more nuanced approach, however, we find that it is those tasks typically performed by trainees and entry-level practitioners (invariably the most time-consuming, repetitive tasks) which are most at risk of automation, while those tasks associated with more senior roles – such as developing tax strategies for clients or critiquing national or international tax policy – are less susceptible.

In short, the effects of automation will be felt differently at different stages of the practitioner career pathway.

This gives rise to several important and related issues, which the profession must now consider.

Knowledge development

While many tasks associated with entry-level positions are considered basic and repetitive, they nonetheless aid in the development of a wide range of skills, both technical and practical, including communication, teamwork and time management. Such skills form the critical foundations for a successful career, but with the underlying tasks at serious risk of automation, there are questions as to how new recruits will acquire these skills.

As well as damaging the immediate acquisition of skills, AI penetration may also have longer-term effects that will take time to become apparent.

Relatively basic practical skills provide the foundations necessary to develop higher-order skills and competencies, and it is certainly reasonable to suggest that individuals who haven’t internalised those skills to an almost instinctive level may struggle to develop the higher-order skills that will remain valuable in the AI future.

Given these risks, firms must begin to act now to mitigate the potential knowledge challenges that AI may raise.

First, organisations will need to look at the support and training they provide to recruits. For example,