As automation becomes a bigger and bigger buzzword across business sectors, many workers – especially CPAs – are wondering what's in store for their jobs. The uncertain situation is additionally stressful because it's hard to separate facts about the future of automation's impact from (science) fiction.
A lot of research reflects this combination of anxiety and confusion. Just one example: A 2016 study by the Pew Research Center said that 65 percent of Americans expect that within 50 years robots will be doing much of the work now done by humans – but 80 percent believe it will happen to other people's jobs, not their own.
Accountants – specifically accounting clerks and bookkeepers– appeared at No. 1 in a 2015 PwC study of which jobs are most at risk from automation in the next 20 years.
The rationale: Computer learning systems or robotics will be able to perform simple and routine tasks faster and more accurately. Accountants were just ahead of checkout operators and cashiers, office administration staff, and financial and insurance administration workers on that list.
To read the story in the Journal of Accountancy, click here.