IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON ACCOUNTING PRACTICES

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of artificial intelligence on accounting practice. For this study, a sample size of 50 finance employees from the Edo State Internal Revenue Service was used. To achieve this purpose, survey questionnaire in addition to qualitative literature review was used to gather data from respondents and examine previous scholarly and professional works on the topic. The findings of this study shows that, although artificial intelligence technology will be used to replace most programmable and autonomous accounting activities, AI will create new opportunities for upward mobile accounting professionals to grow into more strategic and rewarding career path. The regression model used shows a positively significant relationship between artificial intelligence systems and accounting practice, but could not provide a statistically significant relationship between help desk chatbot and accounting practice but there was a statistically significant relationship between expert system, robotic process automation, digital information system and accounting practice. The recommendation of this study is that accountants, business entities and relevant government agencies, such as the EIRS should seek for ways to profitably tap into the new growing arena of artificial intelligence (AI) rather than being in denial of it's impact or trying to suffocate a technology that has come to stay.