A Big Four consulting giant tries to make accounting less boring with AI

Raj Sharma, EY global managing partner of growth and innovation.EYEY is investing $1 billion in AI to attract more talent into the accounting profession.There's a shortage of accountants due to complex regulations and an aging workforce.EY's AI tools aim to make accounting more engaging and improve accuracy and job satisfaction.Accounting has a reputation for being technical, tedious, and high-pressure. A Big Four firm is trying to change that with AI.EY, one of the world's largest accounting and consulting players, wants to use this technology not to replace accountants but to make their work more interesting and fulfilling.EY is investing $1 billion to increase early-career compensation and work with colleges to encourage students to pursue CPA careers. Some of this money will go toward smarter tools that the firm hopes will also attract more young workers into the profession while retaining existing talent."Under no circumstances are we ever thinking that we will get rid of our human workforce and do this just through AI agents or other things like that," Raj Sharma, a global managing partner at EY, told me in a recent interview.This problem is more about a lack of human employees. In a world where modern businesses operate across dozens of jurisdictions with complex and ever-changing regulations, audits have become a logistical and mental minefield. That complexity has driven some away from the field, contributing to a nationwide accountant shortage.About 65,000 students in the US completed bachelor's or master's degrees in accounting in the 2021-22 school year, 18% fewer than a decade earlier. About 30,000 people took the CPA exam in 2022, down roughly 40% from 2010. Meanwhile, three-quarters of CPAs in the US were thought to be at or near retirement in 2019, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants."Even though AI can do a lot of things, think of our business around assurance, audit, and the certifications that are required. We are significantly short of people coming up with accounting degrees," Sharma said. "We are still hiring big classes of accountants from colleges, and we are training them into AI."EY is embedding this AI assistance across tax, risk, and finance workflows via its EY.ai Agentic Platform, developed and launched with Nvidia earlier this year. This has already created about 200 specialized AI agents that support 80,000 EY employees to help with tasks such as data collection, document analysis, and tax compliance — automating dull tasks and amplifying more engaging ones.More interesting, less daunting, auditsSharma cited AI-powered audits as an example of what's possible.Audits are a staple of accounting work that traditionally involved sampling a small subset of transactions to look for errors or fraud. This is painstaking work, and pretty daunting when you're checking the books of huge, complex multinational corporations."It's just overwhelming for our accountants," he told me. "That's one big reason why people don't want to go into accounting because it's so technical, so deep. And the risks are so high of getting it wrong."He explained how AI can make these situations more manageable. For example, an audit that used to take five hours for a particular process might now take two and a half hours with EY employees supported by AI agents."In the past, we would maybe sample 100 transactions. Now, with AI, you could sample 10,000 transactions," Sharma said.EY's accountants would get more involved in situations where this new technology flagged maybe 25 potentially questionable transactions out of that 10,000 total. They'd dig deeper into those specific situations, which could be more interesting and useful work."The accuracy of the audit becomes a lot better. Our ability to catch fraud is a lot better in that particular area," Sharma said. "So AI is a welcome relief for these people that are out there, that they have another tool to be able to help and do more.""Our people are a lot happier in that particular area," he added. "We are making AI agents available for our people to work with, but not with the intent that we will replace the accountants that are out there."Make accounting human againEY is training its employees to work hand-in-hand with these AI tools. It sees a future where the job is less about memorizing arcane rules and more about having human accountants apply their insights in the right places, such as "high-end work around due diligence" in EY's tax practice, Sharma said.EY generated just over $50 billion in revenue last year and has roughly 400,000 employees. Sharma said the firm hopes to become a $100 billion company with 500,000 people and 200,000 AI agents. However, he added that EY is not impervious to what may happen in the world and the broader economy.Accounting may never be the most glamorous profession, though EY is trying to make it less grueling. With AI taking on some of the complexity and monotony, the firm is opening the door to a new kind of accounting career, where professionals do more thinking, less grinding, and might find greater purpose in their work.That, in the long run, might be exactly what saves the profession.Read the original article on Business Insider

Comments

Business News

State regulators launch inquiry into State Farm's handling of fire claims

LA Times

I tried on wedding guest dresses at Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy. The one on the clearance rack really won me over.

about 4 hours ago

insider

Major student-loan repayment changes are one step closer for parents, grad students, and millions more borrowers

about 4 hours ago

insider

Wall Street is on the cusp of ending the dumbest recruiting cycle known to man, and we all could stand to benefit from it

about 4 hours ago

insider

Trump says 'changes' are coming to immigration enforcement after complaints from farmers and the hospitality industry

about 4 hours ago

insider

3 takeaways from Jensen Huang's European charm offensive

about 4 hours ago

insider

OceanGate's former chief pilot says he was 'cut out' from the Titan project after telling CEO Stockton Rush the sub wasn't safe

about 4 hours ago

Sabrina Carpenter says female artists are under more scrutiny than ever, as her suggestive new album cover sparks debate

insider

Comments

Business News

State regulators launch inquiry into State Farm's handling of fire claims

Top Goldman Sachs banker Todd Eagle quits real estate team

CNN’s Anderson Cooper rakes in $18M annually — as network faces spinoff amid ratings freefall: report

Chancellor 'a gnat's whisker' from having to raise taxes - with 'sting in the tail' in her plans

JetZero plans to build $4.7B plant in North Carolina, aims to create 14,500 jobs

Is air travel safe? Deadly Air India plane crash renews concerns after a string of other crashes

Protests at G7 summit in Alberta set to be largely peaceful, targeting Trump policies

Federal government to cut short study of bill to speed up resource project approvals

Melania Trump, Usha Vance, and Cheryl Hines took different approaches to the same outfit at a Kennedy Center appearance

This summer, people aren't just eating hot dogs &mdash; they're wearing them

Air India crash kills at least 200 people, marking the first fatal Boeing 787 plane accident

Tech Giants Partner With Retailers As Smart Glasses Battle Heats Up

Air India Plane Crash: Only One Passenger Survived, Officials Say (Live Updates)

The Future Of Communications & Connectivity Depends On Storied Tech Pioneers Like Nokia

Grand Slam Track Cancels Final Slam In LA Scheduled For Later This Month

Hegseth Doesn’t Deny Military Has Plans For Invading Greenland

UFC Cuts Ties With Fighter Days After Massive Weight Miss At UFC 316

Major Websites Experience Technical Issues Amid Widespread Internet Outage

The Latest ‘Superman’ Trailer Has Me More Worried Than Ever

FIFA Club World Cup Squad Values Exceed $12 Billion

Instacart joins Uber and DoorDash in demanding 'no tax on tips' for gig workers

JetBlue flight from Chicago rolls off runway and into the grass in Boston

Trump slams Fed Chairman Powell as 'numbskull'

Average long-term US mortgage rate ticks down to 6.84%, a 2nd straight small decline

Trump signs measure blocking California's ban on new sales of gas-powered cars

Ex-congressman Billy Long confirmed as commissioner of the IRS, an agency he once sought to abolish

Crunch deadline for Scottish company takeover is extended as talks continue

Scots economy forecast to have 'edge' over UK

Stocks mixed amid GDP miss and fresh trade worry

FTSE 100 hits new record as investors fish for non-US stocks

Trump admits crackdown on illegal immigrants is hurting US workforce: ‘Changes are coming’

Stocks mixed amid GDP miss and fresh trade worry

FTSE 100 hits new record as investors fish for non-US stocks

I tried on wedding guest dresses at Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy. The one on the clearance rack really won me over.

Major student-loan repayment changes are one step closer for parents, grad students, and millions more borrowers

Wall Street is on the cusp of ending the dumbest recruiting cycle known to man, and we all could stand to benefit from it

Trump says 'changes' are coming to immigration enforcement after complaints from farmers and the hospitality industry

3 takeaways from Jensen Huang's European charm offensive

OceanGate's former chief pilot says he was 'cut out' from the Titan project after telling CEO Stockton Rush the sub wasn't safe

Sabrina Carpenter says female artists are under more scrutiny than ever, as her suggestive new album cover sparks debate

OpenAI CPO says the company's engineers only get faster as ChatGPT gets better at coding

Why there's an unexpected surge in people claiming Social Security

Boeing's troubled era has dimmed the prospects of a preeminent American manufacturer

Santander to shut 9 branches next week and 37 more in July – full list

We will do everything we can to save Alexander Dennis jobs, vows Swinney

UK ‘ready to go’ on implementing US trade deal, says Business Secretary

China strikes cautious tone after Trump claims trade deal is 'done'

FTSE 100 hits record high on back of US-Iran tensions

Dunelm slashes the price of a temperature-regulating duvet just in time for the heatwave

'Rachel Reeves promises so much - but we're worried how it will be paid for'

DWP PIP claimant groups likely to keep daily living payments after major reforms

Best free tablet deals as retailers hand out Apple iPad and Galaxy Tab S9 for £0

Motorway closures up a FIFTH last year causing travel misery for millions - these junctions were shut most often

Wine investors thirsty for respite as prices continue to sour

Trump says he will assign tariffs to nations in the coming weeks

UK council tax MAPPED as Brits to see up to £400 rise

Octopus Energy relaunches ‘popular’ savings scheme for customers

New bus service from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Heathrow announced

Green light for plan to demolish pub to make way for student flats

Mark Cuban says left-leaning Bluesky’s ‘lack of diversity of thought’ driving users back to Elon Musk’s X

This summer, people aren't just eating hot dogs — they're wearing them