AI possesses the qualities that make it a perfect fit for automation in financial accounting. It is important to quantify the results achieved by these qualities to get an accurate ROI estimate for AI in accounting. Accounting is a function that demands extreme diligence, accuracy and analytical ability, all of which AI possesses in spades. While AI's massive data processing capability has always been an asset to accounting teams in organizations, its newer subsets like natural language generation and computer vision have completely reshaped the field of financial accounting and reporting. However, accurately gauging the ROI of AI in accounting is a task that can challenge even the most accomplished accounting AI tools.

HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AI–HighRadius, the Artificial Intelligence-powered Order to Cash and Treasury Management software leader, today expanded its Autonomous Software platform into the Record to Report function to help accounting teams complete month-end close activities faster and more accurately. The new Autonomous Accounting software includes Financial Close Management and Account Reconciliation products as part of the Record to Report suite offering. As the deadline for closing business transactions nears each month, controllers and their staff have the often thankless job of identifying anomalies and missing transactions across the business that may be captured in ERPs, accounting systems, third-party systems, Excel, or perhaps not captured at all. Dealing with these upstream business transactions under a tight timeline puts tremendous pressure on accounting teams to complete their work by the first day of the month. The HighRadius Autonomous Accounting solution uses native AI to continuously evaluate every transaction – including potentially missing transactions – to flag department stakeholders to review on a daily basis and self-correct in workflow collaboration with accounting staff.

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Maybe you've seen the humorous "I forced a bot…" meme where people purportedly feed thousands of hours of movie or TV show scripts to an automated computer program – and force it to independently spit out its own script that unnervingly stitches together plausible clichés and stereotyped phrases. In essence, that ability to read, detect patterns, and create new material is how artificial intelligence (AI) works. Fortunately, of course, we don't have server farms spewing out hundreds of Adam Sandler comedies each week (though it can feel like that sometimes). AI is the technology that's been "right around the corner"… for at least 30 years. Proponents and enthusiasts excitedly tell us that AI can defeat everything from chess opponents and traffic congestion to exotic diseases and financial fraudsters.

Memes aren't the typical source for wisdom surrounding artificial intelligence, but one of the Internet's new favorite memes gives us an effective AI-101. In the meme, people force a bot to watch thousands of hours of a TV show, only to have it spit out a script of nothing but stereotypical phrases stitched together. Artificial intelligence -- the perpetually discussed technology has been promised to solve just about every problem facing modern man, from eliminating traffic on the roads, to curing diseases. In many cases, it delivers on these amazing feats, but that doesn't mean AI is reserved solely for these types of cases. Its glossy exterior and impressive power often make it seem like it's reserved for titans of industry or mega-corporations with endless resources to throw into its development, when in fact, it has much more to offer to mid-market companies.

Some call artificial intelligence the fourth industrial revolution -- and it fascinates us, raises many questions, excites us, even scares us a little. But there is no denying that AI makes our daily lives so much easier than it was a few years ago, and much more than we imagined. When we talk about AI, we immediately think about what we use every day, such as virtual assistants or chatbots (e.g., Siri or Cortana), smartphones that identify us through fingerprint or facial recognition, cars that are able to detect pedestrians and to park themselves (often better than humans do). We also think about computers that recognize and analyze documents automatically. AI is also widely present in the business environment.

In today's real-time digital world, businesses need to adapt to dynamic opportunities quickly. Finance teams in particular are under pressure to reduce their operating costs, while acting as a strategic partner to various parts of the business. The expectations are clear – reduce the effort spent on manual, routine tasks and focus on new insights that provide strategic value across the enterprise. Machine learning is further accelerating this digital revolution by allowing companies to extract insights, streamline reporting and fuel forecasting without having to program computer systems and set manual parameters. Finance and accounting teams leveraging this technology are now learning to operate intelligently and are moving outside of their transactional role to support timely business decisions with robust planning and simulated functionality.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to disrupt the lives of individuals, the societies we live in, and the global economy, causing both excitement and trepidation. It goes beyond doubt that AI will automate tasks that have long required human labour. In fact, AI's unprecedented speed, accuracy and cost efficiency have encouraged CFOs to consider its adoption in the Finance and Accounting functions. This is especially true considering the scarcity of trained workforce and investment constraints to handle increasing volumes of data. Essentially, the finance professional is facing a changed paradigm where he/she needs to juxtapose their valuable judgement alongside AI's predictive results in a variety of settings.

Business owners, be forewarned: The AccTech (accounting technology) bots are taking over. These bots are lines of code that grab information and communicate with humans about your business operations. They know (almost) everything before you've even whispered the thought, and they might want to take your bookkeeper's job -- or maybe just work alongside her. I had a recent conversation with Jan Haugo, CEO and vice president of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers USA (ICBUSA), who emphasized all the ways emerging technologies will transform the role of small business bookkeeping. In particular, we discussed how machine learning and artificial intelligence will enable accountants to interact with bots the same way they would with a human co-worker.