New report reveals accountants welcome change

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How will new technology, tools and automation remodel the accounting profession and change the path of future careers? 

To find answers to these crucial questions AAT has conducted new research. The findings will be revealed in a new report The Future Accountant to be published at AAT’s Annual Conference this week.

Some of the key findings from The Future Accountant include:

  • Accountants welcome change –  accounting professionals are not worried by change, they are looking forward to it. 9 out of 10 respondents in our survey think advances in technology are good and will lead to a better industry.
  • Automation could be complete in five years – respondents told us that by far the biggest change for the profession is going to be automation. 6 out of 10 respondents feel changes will come quickly, with basic accounting processes fully automated within five years.
  • Technology is freeing people to do better things – technology is already improving life for 4 in 10 people by removing the burden of mundane tasks. A third of people report that time saved by new tech is allowing them to do more interesting things within their current roles.
  • New systems don’t mean new stresses – you tell us new systems are not creating problems or increasing stress. Only 14% found technology had complicated their roles.
  • New skills required – Understanding and using technology is going to be the biggest challenge for accounting professionals in the future (46%), followed by more strategic thinking (18%) and better communication (15%). New kinds of jobs are also predicted to emerge: 9 out of 10 expect growth in IT-based jobs, and 8 out of 10 reckon new roles will emerge focusing on software.

We will be hosting a live Facebook stream of our panel of experts discussing the findings in more detail and sharing exclusive insights as to how they believe accountancy will evolve. The discussion will be live at 3pm on Friday.

Sign up for the live stream

The live panel discussion on The Future Accountant will be held at 3pm on Friday 8 June.

AAT Conference Live stream

Facilitator: Brian Palmer, AAT Tax Policy advisor

Panel:

  • Andi Lonnen, The Finance Training Academy.
  • Abul Nurujjaman, AAT Licensed Member of the Year 2017, Taj Accountants.
  • Christopher Argent, Group Finance Systems and Process, BI and Analytics, Vodafone.
  • Glen Foster, Director, Partner Sales, Xero.

Follow this link to set a reminder to join the live feed.

David Nunn is Content Manager at AAT.

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