S’porean accountant believes AI won’t replace her profession because human judgement is ‘irreplaceable’
Instead, she sees AI as a productivity booster and complements the skills of accountants.| Winnie Li | Sponsored |
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While artificial intelligence (AI) has been developing for decades, it was thrown back into the spotlight as recent technological advancements, including the release of ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, dominated headlines.
However, the hype surrounding AI has concurrently created and intensified people’s fear of losing their jobs.
In Singapore, 67 per cent of workers reported that they were worried that AI will replace their jobs, according to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index report 2023.
One Singaporean who does not consider AI a threat to her job is Jocelyn Poh, who sees AI as a productivity booster as it cannot replace the element of human judgement in her accountant role.
Poh currently serves as the Head of Financial Planning and Analysis at Castlery, a homegrown digital-first furniture lifestyle brand founded in 2013.
Anchored by its 24,000-square-foot flagship store at Orchard, the brand also has an expansive international footprint, delivering to countries like the United States and Australia.
In her role, Poh spearheads a team that is responsible for financial forecasting, budgeting, and analysing business trends to support the company’s strategic decisions.
She is also a member of CPA Australia, one of the largest professional accounting bodies in the world that offers a professional certification programme, training, technical support, and advocacy to its members.
With tomorrow designated as International Accounting Day, Mothership spoke to Poh about how AI impacted her work as an accountant and her views of the technology.
AI helps with efficiency
Poh shared with Mothership that her team used to spend “a significant amount of time” on manual tasks before they adopted AI tools for work.
One such task is the extraction of data.
While she has a fundamental understanding of SQL (structured query language), it is sometimes challenging for her to write efficient queries quickly, said Poh.
For those wondering, SQL is a programming language designed to manage and manipulate data in a relational database.
Users like Poh will input a query when they would like to add, modify, or retrieve data from the database.
However, with the help of AI, Poh is now able to optimise her SQL queries to extract specific datasets more efficiently.
Also helps with research
Another area in which AI helps Poh is the research of publicly available information.
For instance, rather than manually going through and combining 10 distinct websites, AI streamlines the process by contrasting and analysing the variances in information across the sites.
As a result, Poh is able to formulate resolutions based on her discoveries in a fraction of the time she needed before adopting AI at work.
Additionally, with the number of hours she saves every week, Poh has more bandwidth to focus on tackling strategic challenges and spend more quality time with her team and her family.
For example, she was able to arrange regular bonding sessions with her colleagues, during which they would partake in activities such as badminton, card, and board games.
AI is unable to replace accountants
While acknowledging AI’s role in boosting her team’s productivity, Poh believes that the adoption of AI is still “in the early days” for the accounting profession.
“The improvements I have personally witnessed are mostly around performing mundane tasks more efficiently, ensuring that we are able to apply our time and skills for deeper and more valuable data analysis,” added Poh.
However, this increase in efficiency does not mean AI can fully automate the nuanced tasks of the profession.
“As accountants, we uphold the highest standards of integrity, objectivity, professional competence, confidentiality and professional behaviour that are irreplaceable,” said Poh.
Instead, she sees AI as a tool that empowers her and her peers to concentrate on the core aspects of our job that require “human judgement, ethics, and interpersonal skills.”
“We can then dedicate ourselves more to roles that not only enhance our professional contributions but also bring personal fulfilment and make a meaningful impact,” contended Poh.
Cautious about adopting AI at first
Despite the benefits of AI, Poh also shared candidly that she was both excited and cautious when her team decided to adopt AI for work.
“I was excited because of the potential efficiency improvements that AI can bring, but cautious due to the learning curve and implementation challenges, such as data privacy and security,” she said.
Poh eventually managed to pick up the AI tools through sharing sessions with her colleagues and other accounting professionals, who shared their hands-on practical experiences with AI.
Learn more about AI with CPA Australia
If you are a prospective or current accountant who is keen to learn more about AI and its impact on the profession, you can do so by joining webinars and online courses offered by CPA Australia.
You do not need to be a member to join these events, as they are open to both members and non-members of CPA Australia.
Nevertheless, if you are keen to embark on a career in accounting and make yourself stand out in the industry, you should consider becoming certified by the accounting body.
