96% of accountants think robots will change their job in next 5 years

The majority of UK accountants think that automation will play a significant role in the accountancy profession within the next five years, according to a new report from FreeAgent. FreeAgent's Future of Accountancy report has revealed that 96% of accountants believe that either all or some accountancy work will be automated by 2022, while just 3% said they do not think automation will affect any accountancy work by that time. In addition, 42% of respondents said they were intending to retrain in order to safeguard their role in the future, while 23% said they might consider doing so. In contrast, just one in five accountants said they were not considering any retraining to future-proof their job. Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, said: "We are seeing a continuing shift in the landscape of the accounting profession. Technology is driving new ways of working with clients, while forthcoming legislative changes such as Making Tax Digital and PSD2 will significantly accelerate the pace of automation. "However, this should not be cause for alarm.