Information technology may have been one of the best things that ever happened to accounting as a profession , and according to Drew (2018), it will be changing the game for the future of accounting. Accountants have invested heavily in developing ways and means of using computers to make their work easier, better and more accurate. The technological part of accounting is, however, gradually taking over the profession. Every accountant will be expected to not only have a sound understanding of the rules of accounting but also the technology involved in future accounting. In this regard, accountants will be encouraged to incorporate courses such as computer science and big data analytics even as they study basic accounting.
Currently, accounting work has gotten much better and easier because of computers and IT even as it opens up new jobs for other professionals such as data engineers to be part and parcel of the accounting profession. Alan Anderson, an accounting expert argues that it would be unreasonable to expect accountants to cater for the rules of accounting such as taxation among others and still be experts in information technology (Drew, 2018). Therefore, the changes that big data brings into the accounting profession might necessitate specialized experts working alongside accountants. Instead of the common assumption that Big Data will bring the profession of accounting to an end, Drew, (2018) argues that the accounting profession will be expanded with many other professionals such as engineers being drawn into it.
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From the totality of the above, it is definitively clear that Big Data and related concepts such as machine learning and artificial intelligence will bring a lot of changes to accounting. For a start, the nature and level of skill necessary for accountants are going to expand (Drew, 2018). Traditional roles such as balancing of books and tax-related issues might be relegated to advisory status as most of this processes will be automated. Secondly, the skills of accountants will need to be expanded to include high level IT expertise, a fact that might change how accountants are trained. Finally, accounting as a profession will expand to include other experts such as data mining engineers.
References
Drew, J. (2018, July 01). Merging accounting with 'big data' science. Retrieved from https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2018/jul/big-data-and-accounting.html
