This is not a good time to publish a practice management book, especially one that's not about tax season and one that requires serious thought about how you will be managing your practice for the rest of your professional life. However, Hitendra Patil's new book is a must if you intend to continue in business for a while. Staying as you are is no longer an option.
I'm not suggesting that you read it right away and immediately make the changes he suggests or recommends. But you can flip through the book and let your subconscious start thinking about what he says and how you could integrate artificial intelligence into your practice.
If you're like me, you probably don't know much about cars except you put gas in them, use an electronic key to start them and get them serviced when the warning lights go on. Well, the same applies to the use of AI and all the other new things that accountants use to make their work easier and provide more information to clients.
Also, while I might have had intellectual curiosity about what AI is, I was pretty comfortable using AI, machine learning and whatever else the great IT people at Withum give me to use while they dumb down the instructions for me.
Well, Hitendra's book explains all of this in easy-to-grasp language with examples that relate to what I do and can do for clients. It has not made me an expert in AI, but it has opened my eyes to an expanded universe that I could travel in. AI includes machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision and other processes which are clearly explained, as well as their differences with the uses of conventional software.
Some of the illustrations or applications are:
- Identifying financial data: This gives quick access to greater detailed information that can be extrapolated and presented to the client. An example is a client's top-selling products the prior month compared to the last 12 months. Trends can be identified, anomalies detected, and proactive steps taken to capitalize on this data.
- Identifying cost savings: This can be done by recognizing spending and areas that could be cut without negatively impacting the business. Also, unexpected costs can be quickly identified, possibly catching fraudulent transactions or patterns of errors.
- Identifying risks: Risks take many forms and can include cash flow shortages, the negative impact of economic trends or rising commodity prices, monitoring compliance with loan covenants and contract clauses, and possibly a customer's increased purchases, while planning a Chapter 11.
- Financial forecasting: Financial data can be used to make real-time projections of financial performance, customer activities and inventory-level maximization.
There are too many uses to do justice to the information in the book in a short article. However, browsing through this short, well-written book can provide you with many ideas as well as an understanding of something that seems to baffle many non-IT professionals. AI and its iterations are tools that we will be using more and more, and accountants need to grasp how AI can be applied to help them help their clients.
Hitendra graciously met with my Baruch College graduate students this past Wednesday. He gave a spellbinding presentation not only on AI, but also how the accountant of the future will function and the tools that will be at their disposal. He provided a glimpse into the future. I regret I did not record what he said because they're things everyone should be aware of.
His book is "Rise of the AIccountants: The what, why, and how of artificial intelligence for accountants." It's available in all formats at Amazon.com, and I highly recommend it.
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