While the buzz around artificial intelligence and online AI bots continues to increase, no one should think it’s going to suddenly replace accounting and bookkeeping functions any time soon. While there is quite a movement in the area of automation and digital processing of redundant transactions, including everything from invoice scanning and input to sorting and categorizing, a good amount of accounting still needs human eyes on it to be done correctly. As a result, companies are in a far better position to be using automation assisted human beings still than expecting AI alone to make sense of a folder of digital receipts automatically. Mark Kilduff, Joe Kisamore, and their team at Remote Quality Bookkeeping feel that true AI led bookkeeping is a “long ways off, and even further off for advanced applications.” Mr. Kisamore let us in on some info about AI, automation, and bookkeeping.
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The Difference Between Automation and True AI
Automation today is commonly confused with AI. The assumption is, anything a computer is handling must be done with a thinking processor. However, the actual computers that are doing anything close to “thinking” are very expensive research systems, maybe capable of a 3 or 5-year-old’s thinking capacity right now. Instead, today’s automation involves following very scripted commands and directions, basically involving if-this-then-that directions, Computers are very efficient and effective in this regard, as long as they operate in the boundaries of the explicit rules provided. Once it gets into vague territory, though, the computer processes errors out. This is why so much automation focuses first on reaching a 99 percent effectiveness in testing before being put into production, and that is also why the input is very standardized.
True AI would involve a computer process that can take ambiguity and sort out the best path given general categories of response and approved behavior. That involves an incredible amount of machine learning through millions of possible outcomes to identify the right choices. Despite online AI bots that seem responsive, most are only capable of regurgitating work already done elsewhere on the Internet that matches the question as an answer, sometimes. True AI in the purest sense doesn’t exist as a commonplace tool, and definitely is not at the level to replace bookkeeping.
Human Bookkeeping Still Matters
Unlike computers, human bookkeeping services can process significant material and do so while thinking about all the possibilities and whether a form or transaction is correct or not. While there is human error possible, the level of volume processed with ambiguities is far higher than anything a computer can handle right now with the current version of automation and AI. In fact, AI and automation are far more useful for helping bookkeepers and accountants find errors faster, producing their own total workload faster as a result. In this regard, AI works very well, making humans perform better with complex work in less time.
So, small businesses shouldn’t look to AI to replace bookkeeping. Instead, those accounting services that use automation to speed up services are definitely worth considering for improved performance, reduced errors and higher capacity output overall. That’s according to at least one trusted expert, Joe Kisamore. To learn more about Joe, visit Remote Quality Bookkeeping in Wells, Maine, or contact him through https://myrqb.com/.
