Digitalisation in Accounting: Is It a Risk or an Opportunity?

1. Introduction

In recent years, business fields have transformed rapidly, and technology has become a critical success factor in most professions (Alam & Hossain, 2021; Tu & Akhter, 2023). Globalisation and the digital revolution have changed several aspects of the functioning of enterprises and organisations around the globe. Digitalisation is a wide concept, and several classifications fall under this umbrella, such as machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technology (BT), and big data (BD) (Redlein & Höhenberger, 2020). Artificial intelligence, or AI, has gained evolving development and importance and is being integrated into all types of industries (Rospigliosi, 2023). Based on market demands, a need arises to redefine business processes. AI development has enabled information collection and sharing through automated tools that draw information from huge volumes of data. AI has also become one of the hot topics in policy debates and has received increased attention in education (Miao, Holmes, Huang, & Zhang, 2021). The Institute of Management Accountants reported that about two percent of large firms have already implemented artificial intelligence, or machine learning, on the one hand. On the other hand, about one in five firms has indicated that they are planning to start implementing AI. Though AI implementations are used to address labour shortages, automate labour-intensive tasks, and deliver more insightful data, it is a rapidly evolving technology for which the speed of deployment and the reasons for adoption are hard to track in real-time. AI has become widespread in our daily lives, finding its way into everyday activities (Prentice, 2023); however, awareness about the potential of AI is very limited (Cummings, 2021; Suchman, 2023), and this has directly impacted the adaptation and success of AI on a wider scale. Prasad and Green (2015) argued that technology is dynamic and highlighted the need for more research on technology's impact on accounting. In addition, scholars also highlighted the need for more research exploring the nexus between accounting and digitalisation (Payne, 2014). This provides an opportunity to explore the risks and opportunities of AI and BT in the area of accounting.

Management accountants can use AI and automation, which implies that businesses benefit from them at an inter- and intra-organisational level by creating value and providing a competitive advantage (Korhonen, Selos, Laine, & Suomala, 2021). AI can provide useful and actionable insights into information that can help in driving novel business decision strategies (Arslan, 2022; Quattrone, 2016), creating operational efficiencies, and reducing employee supervision (Brown, Ly, Pham, & Sivabalan, 2020). However, it is essential to know how to make sense of the information and how to use it for fruitful business decisions (Al-Htaybat & von Alberti-Alhtaybat, 2017; Arslan, 2023). AI tends to replicate human biases from the available data without compromising the quality of reports. Humans and artificial technology both have distinct sets of strengths and weaknesses. One of the most obvious limitations of AI is its inability to interpret data and make informed decisions. In addition, AI still relies on reliable data and any misleading data may impact its effectiveness.