Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 1-2
3. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….. .5
4. References……………………………………………………………………….6
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The newest technologies, majorly associate to digitization, has shown some affect
towards the condition of some industries and sectors of the economy. According to
Ślusarczyk (2018), these processes emerge at a different pace, where it will relate with the
maturity level of the economy, its investment opportunities and the innovation culture.
Therefore, the era of digitalization would also have its own impact on the accounting industry
Ślusarczyk (2018) define the concept of Industry 4.0 as “blurring the differences
between the work of people and the work of machines” (p.232). Which means that industrial
revolution 4.0 would bring in mainly a technology which likely capable of imitating the work
of a human. The author also further explain that just like how the first industrial revolution
improvise manufacturers’ operation, the next industrial revolution embodied the use of
electricity into the economy and the industrial revolution three make automation on the day-
to-day work tasks of production workers, the fourth one in bringing betterment for
in the industry with the usage of digitalized technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This paper will use the term of forth industrial revolution and artificial intelligence
interchangeably.
The context of fourth industrial revolution step up from the previous industrial
revolutions as it could relates to all aspect in life. Under this framework, Ślusarczyk (2018)
set forth that “the industry processes and commercializes the exchange of information
between people, between people and objects and also between objects themselves” (p.232).
Accountants have the responsibility in preparing and examining the financial records
of firms. They make sure and make assertions that the records and accounts are accurate,
payment of that corporate tax are made in the given time frame and with an appropriate
amount. They also have to analyse the operation of the business based on the accounting
information and try to assist the company to operate more efficiently and effectively.
Greenman (2017) expressed that accounting industry has a long history of artificial
intelligence (AI) applications way back to more than 25 years ago mainly in the aspects of
financial reporting and auditing tasks. In 2015, University of Oxford conducted a study on the
future accounting. The study depicted that accountants have a 95 percent chance of losing
their jobs as machines take over the role of data analytics and number crunching. In contrary,
the study also suggested that the progressing of technologies may eliminate some jobs and
According to Greenman (2017), the job scope of accountant in this new era depicted a
quite a number of difference when compared to how it was two decades ago. It is probable
that in the decades coming, the role of accountant will again changing in complementing the
needs during that future time. Accountant roles will differ substantially over the next decade.
Accountants will be having more job scope on the more critical part such as consulting on
business development, advisory services and risk management. He also further expressed that
accountants will have to accept more on specialization and incorporate with the
and eventually improve on human thinking”. “AI is the technology that enables computers to
intelligence, it is said that through the implementation of artificial intelligence, it could draw
to a new level of products and services under accounting scope. She listed out that these may
consist of customer service, research and development, logistics, sales, marketing and quality
information analysis. Also, the implementation of artificial intelligence also are capable of
conducting these types of work such as information analysis, report preparation, and many
artificial intelligence has the power to make changes on the accounting profession
specifically.
intelligence or automation will lessen the accountants’ burden on routine or day-to-day tasks,
therefore, open up the opportunity for the accountants to emphasize more on critical scope
such as consulting services and other higher-value work. The author also expressed that
maybe in years coming, artificial intelligence may finally be fully involved participate in the
supervising and assessing of compliance with laws and regulations, policy of a company,
In the current time, the usage of accounting software is not something new to the
accounting profession. Also, the application of tax filing software did not give much impact
on accountants and did not make the accountant to be out of business, when actually it has
assisted them on many task and resulted them to be more efficient and making it doable to
come out with a lot more returns than they could before.
artificial intelligence features. Under this software, it combines the function of bookkeeping
together with human-assisted Augmented Intelligence with advanced automation and skilled
accountants. Some of the smart features is it capable of scanning document and generate the
relevant information on the transaction into the system. The software also is capable of
prompting and reminding the user on making due bill payment. This software has an
objective of providing its client with the function of bookkeeping without having to have
anyone in the company to do it. Where according to the CEO, Enrico Palmerino the software
is capable of mimicking the accountant brain. He further explained that “the easiest way to
think of botkeeper is as a robot bookkeeper” and that “since creating the botkeeper, we’ve
Unfortunately, according to the testimonials, the said objective and features of this
software are still far beyond what it really is as it stills require huge human assistance in order
to operate. It is much more limited than a human bookkeeper, it still could not mimic the
accountant ways of thinking. For example, the software is not capable in making proper
recognizing on the company’s revenue, not capable of producing bank reconciliation and
lastly could not do journal entries such as month-end accruals or deferrals. The software also
still requires the supervision of accountant in order to review the data and its accuracy.
The stated software above might actually depicted that how much advanced is the
manpower is still needed and it could not fully replaced human. Someone is still needed to
analyse the information and data presented and come up with a conducive conclusion.
3.0 CONCLUSION
revolution in the accounting industries has showed various mixed feedbacks and impressions.
Some studies expressed that the application of artificial intelligence in the future would result
in the accountant being set off by the advanced technologies. Less accounting profession will
be offered and needed for the community. Furthermore, many researches also predicted that
company would not need much workforce under the accounting department specifically.
Nevertheless, there are also those who expressed that the existence of artificial intelligence
would give more benefit to the accountant itself as they would be incurring less workload as
Besides that, accountant also will be able to be focus more on the critical task which requires
professional judgement and analytical thinking. In the nutshell, it could be concluded that the
threat to the accounting profession instead it should be seen as an assisting tool which could
In combating the risk and concern on the accounting profession being taken over by
technologies, teaches that the quality and role of accountant in this current globalisation era
need to be further stepped up. Which means that it is crucial for accountant to have critical
and depth understanding in interpreting the company financial data and consult the client on
1454.
Ślusarczyk, B. (2017). Industry 4.0 Are we ready?. Polish Journal of Management Studies
17(1), 232-248.
collaborative report by DHL and IBM on implications and use cases for the logistics