There's some understandable concern these days about the possibility that increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to job losses amongst accounting and audit professionals. But Mike Baccala, PwC's US assurance innovation leader, predicts that while accounting and auditing jobs may change as AI use becomes more prevalent, those jobs won't go away. Baccala is co-author of a recent PwC report that predicts the effects that AI will have on the business environment. He said PwC already is working with AI in a few capacities in client engagements. The firm is using an AI platform to help nonaudit clients extract data from their lease agreements as they implement the US Financial Accounting Standards Board's new lease accounting standard.

There's some understandable concern these days about the possibility that increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to job losses among accounting and audit professionals. But Mike Baccala, PwC's U.S. assurance innovation leader, predicts that while accounting and auditing jobs may change as AI use becomes more prevalent, those jobs won't go away. Baccala is co-author of a recent PwC report that predicts the effects that AI will have on the business environment. He said PwC already is working with AI in a few capacities in client engagements. The firm is using an AI platform to help nonaudit clients extract data from their lease agreements as they implement the new FASB lease accounting standard.