Job disruption is quickly coming to accounting, too

Never before have the fundamental assumptions about the U.S. job market looked so precarious. Automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics, among other technologies, are changing the skills and the skill level required of employees in many industries, including retail, transportation, and manufacturing. The accounting profession is experiencing similar changes, and the pace and pressure of that change is exploding into a major disruption. Robotics is expected to eliminate 40 percent of basic accounting work by 2020. We're in the early stages of the big data and artificial intelligence revolution in accounting, which already is being wholeheartedly embraced at the larger firms.