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PWC's recent Finance Effectiveness Benchmark Report 2017, highlighted among other things, the need for finance professionals to use technology to free up time for them to create and deliver value across the organisation.

Technology is now key to every business function. There are a wide range of technological tools available that can help to transform business, measure results, monitor performance etc.

The PWC report discusses "disruptive technologies", such as artificial intelligence and robotic process automation, which are now delivering cost reduction benefits to many businesses. And this means that within business, IT departments and finance departments need to be more closely linked than ever for transformation to take place and for results to be delivered. Deployed correctly, new technologies can significantly reduce the time spent on  repetitive processes, releasing time for accountants to deliver value to their organisation.

By way of example, the report focuses on RPA (Robotic Process Automation), which if configured in the right way, can make mistakes a thing of the past: no rework, and streamlined processes. RPA can be delivered to an organisation both inexpensively, and time-efficiently, particularly when there is a combination of both robotics and artificial intelligence. It is early days yet for these new technologies to be commonplace, but it's important we all stay ahead of developments, and this PWC report is a great place to start.

www.pwc.co.uk/finance/finance-matters/insights/finance-effectiveness-benchmark-report-2017

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  1. Onyeanwu S
    Posted 03-Jun-2020 at
    AI will affect how fiance and accounting is done but there are areas where AI cannot replace humans even though there is machine learning
    0
  2. Richard N
    Posted 14-Apr-2020 at
    The key word is 'correct' deployment. My experience has been that if these new technologies are incorrectly deployed they can end up creating inefficiencies that will leave users wishing they could go back to manual systems. We need to make sure that the technologies are correctly deployed and adequately resources before we roll out.
    1
  3. Nzima P
    Posted 04-Apr-2020 at
    These are very interesting and important developments for us professional accountants to pay attention to and to be close to and be part of, than to try and catch-up later.
    0
  4. Richard H
    Posted 01-Apr-2020 at
    Robust deployment and implementation needed. Training and clear communication to stakeholders is important.
    0
  5. Steve K
    Posted 30-Mar-2020 at
    Interesting blog. At work, we are already using the cloud. Perhaps Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation are not far from the horizon? Our External Audit each year seems to become more and more automated - fewer audit staff appear on site. Is the new financial transformation resulting in shorter timeframes for reporting? or is the ...
    see more
    1
  6. Igor K
    Posted 27-Dec-2019 at
    Igor Kaparis (the CEO of International Fintech) says, "Against this background, it's essential to understand the strength of technology and how it fits into the artificial intelligence ecosystem, how non-techies can understand and where these technologies can help our organization."
    0
  7. Albert W
    Posted 09-Oct-2019 at
    AI and ml with definitely take over repetitive tasks or any tasks that rely on pattern recognition now or in the near future but I wonder if those tech will be one day be advanced enough to create new ways to circumvent our system and create fraud. I found that to be interesting and scary.
    2
    1 reply - view
    1. accountingcpd
      Posted 09-Oct-2019 at
      Yes, unfortunately where there is good there is evil! There have already been scams reported where AI has been used. In one instance, AI was used to mimic a CEO's voice and trick a manager into transferring £200,000. https://www.computing.co. ...
      see more
      0
  8. Paul M
    Posted 15-Jan-2019 at
    Interesting blog. At work, we are already using the cloud. Perhaps Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation are not far from the horizon? Our External Audit each year seems to become more and more automated - fewer audit staff appear on site. Is the new financial transformation resulting in shorter timeframes for reporting? or is the ...
    see more
    1
  9. Nadia A
    Posted 14-Jan-2019 at
    Digitisation of VAT returns and automated bookkeeping made the our company to move to new software " Xero"- accounting software that can be delivered through the cloud .Xero is perfect for us. Flexible pricing, allows to file tax returns on time.. Equally, Xero provides the necessary evidence across all transactions.
    1
  10. Wing fai C
    Posted 03-Dec-2018 at
    AI will change the role of accounting and finance professionals as well as other industry.
    1
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