cybersecurity remains a concern.
by roman kepczyk
the rosenberg map survey
editor’s note: every year, the rosenberg map survey asks the industry’s top consultants to share their observations from cpa firms across the country. how do you think the next 12 months will unfold? also, how would you assess the last 12 months?
positive optimism: barring an even larger international political crisis in the next 12 months, the opportunities within the accounting profession for firms both providing traditional compliance services and those that have expanded into advisory practices will simply be phenomenal! from a technology perspective, the evolution of artificial intelligence capabilities within accounting applications for process automation will be the most significant trend and while there will be a lot of early hype, good solutions will be able to prove themselves out fairly quickly.
more: private equity leading to corporate-style cpa firms | pe, consolidations to keep impacting accounting profession | a 40-hour workweek is feasible | five ways staff shortages are changing firms forever | soft skills are front and center | it’s time for a new business model | rosenberg map: partner incomes surge 11.4%
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watch for what microsoft does with copilot and integrated virtual assistance within excel, outlook, their edge browser and, in particular, microsoft teams. then start watching what individual accounting profession applications start integrating virtual assistance tools for tax research and projections, audit work program assistance, and use of tools to acquire and analyze accounting data and reporting, and the breadth of practical opportunities will start to unfold.
as far as technology predictions go, i see the #1 concern still being cybersecurity, in that firms will need to go to enterprise-class managed security providers if their internal it people continue to insist on managing their own it infrastructures. because of the incredible cost of these solutions and all their other it needs, it is more likely firms will go to enterprise-class cloud hosting providers that include cybersecurity along with all the other managed services they need (application updates, system backups, disaster recovery, end-user support, etc.). this will allow the firm to focus on servicing clients and pay for their technology needs like they pay for utilities.
stable optimism: let’s face it, most firms did very well financially this past year; if they could have hired more talent they would have done even better. from a technology perspective, the firms that made solid investments during covid-19 targeting the digitalization of all work, moving to the cloud (and cloud applications) for optimized remote work, and focusing on virtual collaboration (both for internal personnel and with clients) were the firms that continued to thrive through the “post-covid” 12 months.
the introduction of generative ai (chatgpt), which most accountants were not even aware of until after busy season, created the most significant buzz i’ve seen in my career. while easy to address ai early on as “hype,” the speed at which usage has evolved and at which accounting vendors were jumping on board to integrate ai capabilities has been stunning. consider that since april 15 literally everyone in the profession had heard some variation of the statement that their work “would not be replaced by ai, but by someone using ai,” and then it actually began happening!