PETALING JAYA: Local accountants must embrace the latest technology trends such as cloud computing, blockchain and big data analytics and apply them in their organisations to stay relevant, said the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA).
“The accountants must be able to understand them and be well-versed with the features of those technologies, and then apply them in their organisations,” executive vice-president of management accounting, research and curricula Dr Noel Tagoe told a media briefing here yesterday.
Towards this end, he urged the local talents to re-skill themselves and raise their level of competency.
Tagoe noted that in today’s world, customers were more demanding and discerning and were no longer buying products and use them.
“People are not buying the product, they are buying the value in that product and that is based from experience that they got when they first purchased the item,” he said.
One example he shared was the banking industry which makes use of technology to assist customers in making online payment without the hassle of carrying a lot of cash.
“The system will eliminate worries among the customers or online banking users that their money will not be lost if they lost their wallet or if they lost their mobile phone.
“This also helped the Malaysian government to save cost from printing the local currency. If it has to increase the money supply and to print more, it will require more cost, but thanks to the online payment via the electronic system, it does not incur cost,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) today revealed that most finance teams and professionals were not evolving their skills fast enough to account for the impact of artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and other technologies.
The majority (over 50 per cent) of finance leaders globally say the competencies of their teams must “change significantly” over the next three years as new technologies take over traditional tasks.
In the “Re-inventing Finance for a Digital World” report, it was also revealed that 61 per cent of finance professionals surveyed expected over 20 per cent of finance tasks will be automated in the next three years.
AICPA is the most influential body of professional accountants, combining the strengths of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and CIMA to power opportunity, trust and prosperity for people, businesses and economies worldwide.
It represents 667,000 members and students in public and management accounting and advocates for the public interest and business sustainability on current and emerging issues. – Bernama
