Accounting Industry Accelerates AI Adoption: "Strategic AI Utilization Differentiates Competitiveness"

KAI 25th Anniversary Seminar
Major Accounting Firms "Using Proprietary AI Apps for Work"
"Beware of 'Hallucination' Giving Incorrect Answers"

The industry and institutions have begun to seriously consider the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) will have on accounting tasks. Large accounting firms and public institutions have already introduced AI into their internal operations, creating various use cases. Efforts to identify the intersection between work and AI are expected to become a key factor that will determine the competitiveness of companies and individuals in the future.

On the 3rd, the Korea Accounting Institute (KAI) held a seminar commemorating its 25th anniversary at Dreamplus Gangnam in Seocho-gu, Seoul, under the theme "Accounting Standards and Interpretations, and AI."
[Photo by KAI]

At the Korea Accounting Institute (KAI) 25th anniversary seminar held on the 3rd under the theme "Accounting Standards and Interpretations, and AI," accounting experts shared a common view that "experience and ability in utilizing AI will become increasingly important." The seminar, hosted by KAI, took place at Dreamplus Gangnam in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and was attended by about 100 people from accounting firms, academia, and corporate sectors.

On the day, Kim Gap-soon, president of the Korean Accounting Association (professor at Dongguk University), said in his congratulatory speech, "Continuously advancing AI will have a significant impact on accounting standards. It offers unprecedented precision but also presents new challenges." He added, "It is important for accounting professionals to acquire the necessary AI-related skills. They must also be aware that AI can bring potential biases and errors." Former KAI president Lee Hyo-ik also emphasized, "A farmer needs not only agricultural knowledge but also the ability to operate farming machinery well," adding, "In the accounting field as well, we need to consider how to utilize advancing AI technology in our work."

During the presentation session, the applicability of AI to job functions and the current status of actual adoption were introduced. Lee Seung-yoon, managing director at Microsoft (MS), said, "AI technology itself did not suddenly appear. What we realize now is that the theory became feasible with OpenAI's 'ChatGPT,' which was released last year." He continued, "It took 16 years for mobile phones to reach 100 million users after their initial market launch, and the internet took 7 years. OpenAI and ChatGPT reached 100 million users in just 3 months." He added, "Initially, we expected the greatest help in proposal writing tasks, but various cases have emerged, such as automating the quality control team's work to determine whether products meet international standards and the legal team's first filtering of toxic clauses in contracts."

Cases of applying AI to accounting tasks, mainly by large domestic accounting firms, were also introduced. When asked, "If an individual is the CEO of both Company A and Company B, are Company A and Company B related parties?" PwC Samil's AI app 'AI Accountant' responded within seconds, "You cannot conclude that they are related parties solely because they share the same CEO." Furthermore, it provided the relevant accounting standard paragraphs that serve as the basis for cases when they become related parties. Cho Sung-jae, partner at PwC Samil, explained, "The app learns a large volume of Korean International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS) standards and internal corporate documents to provide answers to questions." He added, "Since the latter half of 2022, we have continuously developed generative AI apps, and the beta test service is nearly complete."

Samjong KPMG, which established the industry's first AI center at the end of last year, is also utilizing functions of 'KPMG GPT' such as ▲customer finance and accounting Q&A ▲internal use (accounting standards search, etc.) ▲management environment report writing ▲risk management and monitoring ▲contract review in their work.

Lee Seung-yoon, Executive Director at Microsoft (MS), is introducing AI application cases at the 'Accounting Standards and Interpretation, and AI' seminar held on the 3rd at Dreamplus Gangnam in Seocho-gu, Seoul, hosted by the Korea Accounting Institute (KAI).
[Photo by KAI]

Lee Dong-geun, executive director at Samjong KPMG, said, "AI is a tool that helps members perform their tasks better," advising, "Just as office programs including Excel enabled more high value-added work in the past, we need to comprehensively review how to create the intersection between our work and AI, as well as the data for AI learning." He added, "As AI is integrated into work, whether we utilize or neglect the unforeseen aspects that arise will create differences in competitiveness between companies and individuals."

There was also advice to be cautious of hallucinations, where AI provides incorrect answers. Partner Cho Sung-jae said, "When asked which K-IFRS number applies to investment real estate, OpenAI's ChatGPT gives wrong answers. This is because it has not been well trained on Korean accounting standards," explaining, "This is the reason PwC invested about 1 trillion won to develop its own AI app."

Park Hyung-jun, director at Saltlux who participated in the generative AI adoption process at public institutions, said, "We aimed to prevent hallucinations and increase reliability by presenting supporting documents along with answers," adding, "Even if the AI model itself is excellent, to obtain accurate data, it is necessary to extract input values from our knowledge and materials."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.