Jul 30, 2024 | AI

David Wong, chief product officer, Thomson Reuters, and Elizabeth Beastrom, president of Tax & Accounting Professionals, Thomson Reuters, discussed how technology and AI tools are bridging the talent gap in the tax and accounting space in the latest episode of TechConnect. Their conversation draws from findings of the second Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals report.

They discussed the report’s findings around time-savings, noting that 77% of tax professionals believe generative AI is applicable to their industry, with potential productivity gains of up to five hours per week.

“There’s some pretty big implications of what this means for the tax and accounting space,” Wong said, noting generative AI tools could make tax season and other busy periods “way less painful” for accountants.

The report also found that 83% of tax professionals cited a lack of skilled labor.

“The talent shortage is real,” Beastrom said. “It’s been ongoing for the last few years and it’s definitely not going away. 300,000 people have left the industry between 2019 and 2022.”

She said the number of students getting bachelor’s degrees in accounting is down and cited Financial Times data on the number of people sitting for CPA exams, which hit its lowest level in 17 years.

“With less people going into the profession and more people retiring and leaving the profession, there’s a tremendous opportunity to leverage GenAI to support tax professionals to help solve that talent gap,” Beastrom said. “AI has the power to support increased efficiency, higher quality work, and greater value for our clients and our customers.”

She added: “If you’re a junior professional, AI is that springboard that can help accelerate your training and on the job learning, which is going to allow you to transition into higher value roles more rapidly. The work is more challenging and could significantly bolster your future progression within the firm.”

Wong noted AI may compress the time needed for accountants to advance in their careers, making the profession more appealing.

“I think there’s this exciting opportunity where the early stages in a career will get compressed,” Wong said. “Instead of having to wait five, six, seven years to become a senior, I foresee that with support from AI and the efficiencies you get, just the sheer amount of more work that you can do, you’ll get up to speed a lot faster. It might only take two, three or four years instead to be able to become a senior.”

Wong and Beastrom also discussed how the potential time savings from AI adoption could allow tax professionals to shift from transactional tasks to higher-value advisory roles, improving work-life balance and business growth. Overall, they expect the integration of AI will attract a broader range of talent with diverse skill sets to the accounting and tax industry, transforming it into a more dynamic and exciting field.

Watch the latest episode of the TechConnect series, which brings diverse and dynamic perspectives from all corners of the technology world with thought-provoking questions and conversation.