AI is the New Path to Development

Suzanne Gratch, Head of Accounting and Finance and CFO at Showcase

Suzanne Gratch, Head of Accounting and Finance and CFO at Showcase

Without a doubt, artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the hottest topics in recent technological advancements, and accounting and finance are not exempt from this exciting trend.

As with any change, technological or otherwise, there are pros and cons. Businesses have different approaches to navigating change and try to leverage benefits as best as they can while taking precautions to avoid unintended disadvantages.

Advantages that come to mind include improving the speed of task completion, reducing research times, and automation processes, to name a few.

Challenges range from managing the fear of employees who think that AI may one day replace them, difficulties adapting to new technology by some staff members, and overreliance on tools such as ChatGPT or the like.

Showcase – Home of the hottest trends, it is no stranger to trends and technologies. We embrace AI and are one of the early adaptors. Our CEO lives by it and would speak of it any chance he could. We leverage AI to research issues that come up within the accounting and finance department when faced with a series of financial audits last year. By posing questions to ChatGPT, within a matter of seconds, we received a decent response about what to expect as well as pitfalls to avoid when working through an audit, amongst other useful information such as timelines, costs, etc. AI is also widely used by our marketing department to quickly gather and analyze data with respect to current and upcoming product trends based on keyword searches on the web and on our website. AI tools are extremely helpful for assisting with generating new product name suggestions, tag lines, etc. It is impressive to see the ‘creative’ side of something we tend to think of as ‘robotic.’ For example, if you create a new perfume with a strawberry scent, You can ask ChatGPT to suggest a name to call it. Within a matter of seconds, you get ten names to choose from. You can then ask it to improve the list by providing further instructions, such as ‘use two words only,’ ‘make it more fun sounding,’ etc., and it will return with a new and ‘better’ list of suggestions.

When it comes to calculations, however, we find the tool fell short. In one example, we asked ChatGPT to calculate termination pay for an employee who has been with the organization for 11 years. While the response that was returned clearly indicates the notice period in Ontario is one week per year to a maximum of eight weeks, the calculation itself showed 11 weeks. So, it is not smart enough yet to realize that even though the employee has a tenure of 11 years, the calculation should only include eight weeks based on governmental regulations. In another example, we provided a list of transactions and asked ChatGPT to identify duplicate entries. By manually checking, we know that there were 11 duplications on the list, but ChatGPT only returned six. When asked why it missed the other five, it offered an apology and said it would try to 'do better in the future.’

Any company that has plans for growth will have to consider automation and leveraging technology. The economy of scale is key to improving the bottom line. That said, there are a few things that are important to keep in mind:

1. Human involvement is always required; it’s a matter of delegating mundane tasks to the robots, but never the final reasonable checks to ensure accuracy and completeness.

2. There will always be employees who fear change, specifically automation, so it is important to include them in the process to make them feel safe and not spring on the change with any element of surprise. Communication is key.

3. The technology landscape is constantly evolving. Keep up to date with what's happening in the marketplace, and always ask yourself if you are becoming complacent. The answer should always be ‘no.’ Never, ever stop learning.