Question

Students will create a 2 – 3-page infographic summarizing the effects of an emerging technology on business and accounting. The objective of this assignment is to familiarize yourself with a variety of emerging data and technology topics and their importance to accounting. Before completing this assignment, make sure to read the documents related to ‘Data Analytics Mindset’ in the Week 5 Documents & Resources folder. An analytics mindset is the ability to: Ask the right questions Extract, transform, and load relevant data Apply appropriate data analytics techniques Interpret and share the results with stakeholders You will learn about emerging technologies that are or becoming influential in the accounting profession. Many of these technologies may have significant implications for the future of accounting. Understanding these current and emerging technologies can influence every aspect of an analytics mindset by changing the questions you ask, altering how you work with data, requiring you to apply different or new data analytics techniques, and influencing how you share your results with stakeholders. Required Select a technology (see list below). Create an infographic that includes the following: (1) a brief summary about the topic and (2) explain how the technology affects, or could affect business and accounting. (3) Briefly explain how the technology affects/may affect the analytics mindset – asking the right questions, extracting/transforming/loading relevant data, applying appropriate data analytic techniques, and interpreting and sharing the results with stakeholders. Sample List of Technologies American Institute of Certified Public Accountants data standards Artificial intelligence (software of robots) Augmented reality and virtual reality Big data ethics (including data privacy) Big data storage (e.g. data lakes) Blockchain (internet of value) and cryptocurrencies (bitcoin) Cloud computing Cognitive computing Continuous auditing and monitoring Cybersecurity Dark data and dark analytics Drones Internet of Things (IOT), Internet of People and sensors Machine learning Natural language generation Neural networks, deep neural networks and deep learning Robotic process automation (RPA)

Answer 1

The technology I have chosen is: Artificial Intelligence ("AI")

(1) a brief summary about the topic

Artificial Intelligence ("AI") refers to creation of computers and / or robots / machines with intelligence similar to that possessed by human beings. Machines with artificial intelligence are supposed to work, behave and react very similar to us, the human beings. AI is supposed to drive planning, reasoning, logical arguments, actions etc by machines. Thus these machines are expected to mimic human beings. Thus AI in a way is simulation of human beings.

and (2) explain how the technology affects, or could affect business and accounting.

AI has potential to transform the way businesses are conducted across the globe. It can lead to production of robots who can think like human and act like human. It can lead to faster completion of repetitive and voluminous jobs. It can help us tremendously in voluminous jobs such as data entry, database creation. Such machines can make decisions, analyze data and present them in an unbiased manner. Their decisions are also expected to be more consistent than that of human beings. They can be of great help in the following areas of finance & accounting:

• Automation of tedious and voluminous and lengthier processes
• Book keeping and accounting
• Data checking and uploading
• Data processing to arrive at insights related to revenues & costs
• Create and process purchase invoices, engage into inventory management.
• Payments processing
• Advance warning for forthcoming expected deadlines, payments etc

(3) Briefly explain how the technology affects/may affect the analytics mindset – asking the right questions, extracting/transforming/loading relevant data, applying appropriate data analytic techniques, and interpreting and sharing the results with stakeholders.

AI technology primarily thrives on large data and analysis. Such a technology tries to map the human thought process and behavior. The technology will improve the analytical mindset by:

• AI technology can feed, store and process enormous data with ease and reliability.
• This technology can apply data analytic and proceed to generate insights that can be used for decision making.
• However the reliance and dependence of mankind on machine will increase.