tech’s the tool, but ai? not yet.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
for the second year in a row, the thomson reuters state of tax professionals report finds that improving efficiency is the top strategy priority for accounting firms, but this year, for the first time, it ties with talent.
as the report notes, the two priorities are tightly linked in the sense that efficiency is linked to productivity. the former drives the latter.
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the report is based on an international survey of 500 respondents, about half in the united states, with the rest in the united kingdom, canada, australia, brazil and argentina. data comes from the first quarter of 2024.
surge in talent
this year, 32 percent of respondents indicated driving efficiency and improving talent as top priorities. it is a slight drop since 2023 in efficiency as a priority, down from 34 percent, but a big surge in talent-related issues, up from 23 percent.
while professionals will always be the base of both productivity and efficiency, technology is the tool they use to make it happen. the report finds that most firms are automating as least part of their tax practice, but most still fall far short of total commitment.
- 43 percent automate only 1 to 25 percent of their tax processes.
- overall, 16 percent use no automation tools.
- midsize firms are most likely to automate, with 20 percent automating at least half their processes.
- larger firms are slightly less likely to automate, possibly because more of their tax work is advisory, which is harder to automate.
- firms in argentina and brazil report twice as much automation – 40 percent – as firms in most other regions.
follow the money
investments are a good indicator of priorities.
- investment in new tax technology solutions was the most common first or second priority, reported by 29 percent.
- improving processes and workflows – often the object of new technology – was almost as common, at 28 percent.
- improving tech support was the most common top priority, at 19 percent.
- better hardware was the top investment for only 5 percent.
ai: not yet
though it seems like artificial intelligence is all we hear about these days, last year’s survey didn’t even ask about it. interest has boomed since then, but so far, it’s a lot of talk but not much walk.
- only 24 percent of firms use any ai at all.
- among those that do, research is the most common application at 24 percent.
- 18 percent use it for administrative work (accounts payable, payroll, etc.).
- 13 percent use it for chatbot responses.
- probably the same 13 percent use it for external client-facing work.
all of that is now, but tomorrow is another day. ai’s appearance in next year’s report should be very interesting.
until this, this is the thomson reuters institute’s conclusion regarding technology:
“interest in improving technological capabilities and using automation to achieve greater efficiencies is relatively high at most firms, but practical usage scenarios for ai are still in the incubation phase.”