Machine Learning

Machine learning creates room for continuous business model innovation. One recent summer, Charles Weinstein, CEO of New York City-based accounting firm EisnerAmper, had an epiphany: machine learning could either destroy his business or remake it. A 35-year veteran of the industry, Weinstein sensed that the practice of accounting--issuing financial statements three months after the quarter closes--while still necessary, was losing relevance in the real-time, data-driven economy. So he organized a three-day partner meeting to consider how machine learning capabilities in particular might remake the traditional accounting firm for the digital era, enabling it to help its clients look into the future rather than simply reporting on the past. Weinstein invited a partner in charge of global innovation at a Big Four accounting firm (not a direct competitor) to talk about the moves his firm was making.