[OPINION] Questions Filipino accountants need to ask about AI - Rappler

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On September 12, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies to give themselves more time. He appealed to them to slow down how AI capabilities advance and to give their AI risk prevention measures more time to catch up. Among his recommendations was to let third-party evaluators into the frontier labs of AI companies, so they can check safety measures independently. When AI leaders such as Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk urge more caution in moving this technology forward, AI users like us can take this as a signal to reflect more on how AI will transform what we do. For instance, AI is changing how many accountants work, but how are we advancing how accountants learn?  

Traditional accountants and bookkeepers used to spend years performing data entry, coding transactions, reconciling accounts, processing payroll, and reviewing journal entries, and financial statements.  

Learning to identify errors — and understand causes — helped accountants develop professional judgment, a skill strengthened through repeated practice. As AI increasingly automates these repetitive tasks, young accountants need to ask: How do we learn to build the judgment, critical thinking, and advisory skills that will keep us relevant in the age of AI? How will accountants develop the professional judgment that clients and employers rely on? Despite advances in AI, demand for skilled accountants remains strong. Oxford Economics forecasts that Australia will need at least 18,000 more accountants, auditors, and finance professionals than the available supply by 2035. Part of the reason for that shortfall would be the projected departures of some 108,000 workers over the next 10 years. 

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), which commissioned the research, believes that the talent shortfall will be most acute “exactly where the economy can least afford it: in the junior and intermediate roles that keep audit, tax, and financial reporting functions running.” For those of us in the accounting and finance industry, this represents an opportunity for thousands of Filipino professionals, provided they receive the training they need to harness AI for the work that they do.  Reports about generative AI tools that have fabricated quotes, referred to non-existent reports, or even hallucinated a fictional destination for a travel campaign should remind us to be cautious. Rather than prioritizing speed, learning must take precedence.  As automation and generative AI advance, accountants will need to ask which skills will remain uniquely human. Beyond learning how to use AI tools, are accountants learning to question AI outputs, identify errors, and recognize when technology may be wrong? It’s more important than ever for Filipino accountants to understand how to evaluate and challenge automated work. We must invest now in developing the next generation of accountants, equipping them with the skills to work effectively alongside AI. – Rappler.com

Ian Zafra is president and country manager of TOA Global Philippines. TOA Global is a provider of outsourced accounting and finance talent, supporting 1,200+ firms and corporations across Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.