So what does the rise of intelligent machines mean for the future of accountants?  

Accounting Today recently endeavored to answer that question with help from two executives from Genpact, a global leader in digitally-powered business process management and services with experience in serving one-fifth of the Fortune Global 500.

Gianni Giacomelli (Chief Innovation Officer) and Prashant Shukla (Vice President, Marketing) of Genpact shared the following insights.

  • A large number of positions now handled by people, including accounting jobs, will be supplemented or replaced in some way by intelligent machines
  • The accounting industry is already seeing a displacement of jobs through outsourcing and robotic process automation
  • By diving into LinkedIn analytics, it is evident that numerous, expanded career paths may exist for accountants in roles traditionally unrelated to finance and accounting
  • One-third of 1,120 randomly selected people with “accountant” roles in their LinkedIn profile have held a role unrelated to finance and accounting
  • Customer service, operations, and sales and marketing were all well-represented in the LinkedIn research
  • Additionally, positions in research, program management, consulting and business analysis stood out

The bottom line?  

The Genpact executives believe that accountants offer skill sets that can help address a wide array of business challenges and the future offers expanded opportunities for these professionals in non-traditional finance and accounting roles.

Read the full article here.