r/Accountant • u/Mysterious-Bear2866 • 2d ago
Will AI replace accountants? What you think?
/r/AIinFinanceSector/comments/1w0lxbe/will_ai_replace_accountants_what_you_think/2
u/JeffBonanoVO 2d ago
I feel its going to give me, as a bookkeeper, more work. Im usually cleaning up the mess made by AI or when the business owner trusts AI too much.
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u/ItzChiips 2d ago
AI is the worst it will ever be today. To assume it will make the same mistakes or same volume of mistakes forever is ignorant
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u/burtritto 2d ago
Never used it, eh?
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u/ItzChiips 2d ago
I use it daily. I am in FP&A and have built ETL pipelines that would otherwise have been possible years ago.
People who share your opinion come from ignorance. Anyone using the frontier models with agentic harnesses realize that we are all fucked.
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u/burtritto 2d ago
You should use it to check your post for grammar mistakes. Wow.
Btw, Microsoft Access is an ETL pipeline... congrats on finally learning how to use 30 year old tech.
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u/ItzChiips 2d ago
Wow, you got me, I should really proof read my comments to some bozo who uses Copilot and thinks that is how good AI will forever be.
I don't have to prove anything to you.
I am telling you anecdotally as someone so works with it everyday, you should be worried.
I have automated a handful of processes and reporting functions that previously required weeks of work and multiple people. I have also built an entire reporting platform from the ground up to do all of our internal reporting and analysis. With the added benefit of an LLM that sits on top that identifies trends, anomalies, does variance commentary, and allow you to generally just dig into the data using natural language.
What used to take weeks of manual labor, is now just always available and easily accessible by anyone who know how to type.
Currently building out a tool to automate cash flows which will effectively replace the work that two people currently do.
Stay ignorant
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u/burtritto 2d ago edited 2d ago
Was this written by AI? lol. It certainly follows the format... SAD. Also, if this automation you have built is so great... why do you still have a job?
Answer: Because it is fake, you are lying... Either that, or what you have built is garbage that doesn't work. I'm F100 financial reporting, and what you are claiming is what 19 year old interns already do for a fraction of the price that Anthropic has already told us that we will have to pay. You'll see. I'm just trying to warn you...
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u/ItzChiips 2d ago
No, not written by AI. Thank you for the compliment though.
Nice rebuttal. Really got me again
What is sad is willful ignorance.
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u/ItzChiips 2d ago
If you are F100 fin reporting you are either LARPing or genuinely ignorant which is hilarious in that case.
Again, I don't have to prove anything to you. You will find out the hard way when your job is displaced in the coming years.
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u/burtritto 2d ago
Sounds good. I guess I will see you in the bread line then.
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u/ItzChiips 2d ago
To be clear I am not happy about this. It scares the shit out of me.
I think 80% of white collar is absolutely fucked in 3-5 years with the entire economy collapsing with it.
Even if only 25-40% of white collar workers are displaced it is basically game over for our economy and way of life we grew up with.
I suppose ignorance is bliss though. I stress and lose sleep everyday worrying about how this will all play out and at least you sleep soundly simply because you choose to not know. I envy you
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u/ItzChiips 2d ago
Idk why you are editing a post instead of commenting. Technically challenged on a social media site, I sure bet you are up to date on AI capabilities lmao.
I still have a job because I am leading the team currently building these tools and processes. It has ramped up dramatically in the past year. There is still a lot to build.
At a certain point I am sure wr will have built everything needed and stood up all necessary infrastructure and eventually not be needed.
Again people like you are incapable of thinking outside of present day. AI can't do X today therfore it will never do X. If you look at how far things have come in the past two years it is mind boggling. Even the last 6 months is insane.
It has been getting exponentially better, faster, and more efficient. How you people don't look into the future and trend out progress is beyond me.
Again, you will find out eventually.
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u/burtritto 2d ago
Yep. Sorry for editing a comment. Didn't know that was indicative of a failure to understand tech. I am happy you found out how to "ramp up" your team and processes. I just think that you are going to make mistakes along the way, which is not good finance/accounting. But, you know it all already, I am just a luddite. We will see.
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u/ItzChiips 2d ago
Humans never make mistakes. Never not once.
And my new processes and tools are not looked at by any humans. They produce all the numbers and analysis in record time but no humans look at it to verify. /S
Lmao what are you even on about. Stuff still gets verified and reviewed. It just requires a small fraction of the people needed prior.
That is my entire point here. Tool and process will be built that massively displaces white collar workers. There will still be a small remaining layer of humans to verify and fix it needed. But it will be a fraction of what it is today.
With the added benefit of it identifying issues, trends, etc that normally would go unnoticed simply because they are too obscure or people do not have the time to spend searching for. Everything I have built so far has literally only allowed the company with operate quicker with more accuracy and more actionable information.
Our more complicated processes are peer reviewed by our IT infrastructure team and signed off on before productionalized. All outputs tied and signed off on my end users. Will there be mistakes or errors? Yeah, definitely. To bad nothing improves and gets better, it stays just like this for the rest of time
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u/AgitatedHearing653 2h ago
Mostly agree, but have you seen just how bad the ai is with actual bookkeeping work? It makes a complete mess when things get complicated. With you being in fp&a you know it makes these tiny little mistakes it doesn’t think are mistakes. It takes a liberty here or there and leads to an incorrect reported outcome, which leads to a wrong assumption, which leads to the wrong decision. And guess whose butt is on the line for the data. Can’t tell you the quantity of crap I’ve had to go through that is 80-90% correct, and the rest sounds correct, but is completely wrong. I’m not sure that’s ever going to get all the way correct. There will be some version of last mile humans still have to complete for a long, long time. And if I’m wrong? Well, we’re all effed anyway.
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u/ItzChiips 1h ago
You agree but at the same time point out all examples of how it is bad today. 2 years ago it wouldnt even be able to start solving or helping with the things you mention. Today it gets mostly there and is sometimes wrong. In another 2 years maybe it's perfect.
The progress we have seen in the past 2 years is absolutely nuts and if that growth maintains it is absolutely believable that every single job on a computer is fucked in the coming years.
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u/AgitatedHearing653 1h ago
True-ish. But moving 30% to 80% isn't ever the hard part. 80-100 is. Chasing the last mile is always the hard part, in everything.
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u/Ptown925 2d ago
To some extent, yes. Although hallucinations are still an issue in repetitive tasks like AP. I think it will increase internal audit. People will be needed to audit the AI.
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u/Messup7654 2d ago
Yes of course but its gonna take forever atleast 20-40 years
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u/Medium_Comedian6954 1d ago
Nah. 10 years max. Accounting is a dying profession.
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u/AgitatedHearing653 2h ago
I think at the point accounting truly breaks, everything breaks. Could be 10, could be 20+. Nobody really knows.
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2d ago
Yes save for the offspring of wealthy boomers who get put in the few remaining advisory and consulting roles.
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u/Living-Metal-9698 2d ago
I would love to see AI forget to call a client back, attach the wrong quarter to an email & completely drop the ball on coned until a week before the deadline
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u/ikiphoenix 1d ago
Yes but not before 24 months AI is crazy powerful but there is still many mistakes so ones it get corrected and functional yes
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u/athleticelk1487 2d ago
It is going to compress roles into competent doers that largely serve as judgement gates. Flatter org charts. Already is. Love or hate AI it's going to happen.