Accountants who collaborate with artificial intelligence to accomplish their work report significantly greater benefits compared to peers who use AI peripherally, according to a new study.
The study, entitled “The Journey to AI Collaboration: Moving Past the First Step,” was released earlier this week by accounting software provider FloQast. Conducted in partnership with the University of Georgia’s Consumer Analytics program, the report is based on a survey of 515 full-time finance professionals across 12 countries which shows that simply thinking of AI as a tool misses the full opportunity that the technology presents to the accounting profession.
The study found that roughly three-quarters of accountants and CFOs have used AI at work, but less than 10% of them say AI has become essential to their work. This gap highlights the difference between casual AI usage and true collaboration, FloQast says.
True accountant-AI collaboration appears to positively affect sleep quality, with 52% of AI collaborators feeling very well-rested compared to 29% who are using AI but haven’t integrated it into their work. Accountants who collaborate with AI also report lower burnout and greater work-life balance, scoring 18 points higher on a 100-point scale than accountants using non-integrated AI, and 38 points higher than those who don’t use AI at all, according to the study.
In addition, accountants who actively collaborated with AI to get their work done achieved the highest accountant identity scores, at 83 out of 100, suggesting that rather than diminishing the accounting profession, AI removes barriers and frees accountants from tasks that previously made them question their career choice.
“The findings from this University of Georgia study confirm what we’ve been seeing at FloQast. Namely, that the future of accounting isn’t about replacing human expertise with AI but about creating powerful partnerships between accountants and technology to achieve shared objectives,” Mike Whitmire, co-founder and CEO of FloQast, said in a statement. “When accountants collaborate strategically with AI, they experience myriad benefits, whether it’s working more efficiently, rediscovering what they love about the profession, or achieving greater work-life balance.”
Companies that support AI collaboration also see major advantages, including greater employee retention, improved hiring, and increased productivity. The study found that accountants who collaborate with AI are more likely to stay with their current employer and report having sufficient time to do their work (56%). Furthermore, more than three-quarters of accountants who had used AI said that a hiring company’s use of AI was key to their interest in a role.
“Critically, the UGA study found that effective accountant-AI collaborations are built on trust and an understanding of AI’s role,” FloQast said. “Accountants who actively partner with AI are more likely to trust AI to complete work accurately and view AI as auditable and explainable. Auditability requires a clear sense of what AI is supposed to do and how it should go about those tasks. That knowledge, along with transparency in the work done by AI, allows the accountant to audit what their AI tool has accomplished.”
However, significant challenges remain in building strong accountant-AI teams, the study says. More than three-quarters of CFOs don’t feel confident in their ability to integrate AI into their accounting function. Less than 20% can separate must-haves from nice-to-haves in AI solutions or identify available options for AI application. And only 20% feel they can define a plan to choose the right AI solution or identify the pain points that AI is uniquely suited to address.
“Despite these barriers, the UGA study demonstrates that AI collaboration holds tremendous promise for transforming the accounting profession,” FloQast says. “As the accounting profession continues to evolve, this study provides clear evidence that the secret to future success lies in AI and accountants working together to achieve common goals.”
Photo credit: jittawit.21/iStock
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