Why accountants need to embrace robotics and intelligent automation - Accountancy Age

While digital innovation and new technology is developing at a faster pace than ever before, every industry is having to adapt to new process and ways of working all the time. Some businesses are embracing this, and many have even thrived or been created because of it, but the accounting industry generally has found it a challenge. Accountancy is an age old profession, traditionally very process-driven; thus bringing technologies like robotics and automation into the mix has not only changed what clients expect from the service they pay for, but also the way accountants work and what their core responsibilities are. Automation is no longer breaking news, yet many accountancy firms still have a way to go before they are making use of all efficiencies available to them. According to the ICAEW, 25 percent of all businesses are still using paper-based records showing that, even if accounting firms are aware of technological developments, they have not yet taken action to make use of them.