Artificial intelligence (AI) is part of our lives now and many people need help navigating how they can safely use it. This is just as true for ICAEW members, many of whom are wrestling with the role of AI in their day-to-day operations. 

While AI has been with us in some form for many years now, the advent of generative AI tools has accelerated its adoption. Members recognise that AI adoption could be beneficial to them, but based on the sort of questions we’re receiving from them, many are not sure where to start. 

For example, a lot of members are not sure how much they can trust what AI tells them. We’ve all heard stories about AI hallucinations, errors and biases. How do we navigate that? 

We also hear concerns about overreliance on AI and the gradual erasure of professional judgement and scepticism. But beyond those understandable fears, more than anything chartered accountants want to understand how AI fits into the ecosystem of what they do, and the skills they might need to develop to be the most productive they can be in an AI-enabled world.

ICAEW has been producing articles and resources on AI for some time now, but with the strength of need for comprehensive guidance on AI and how to use it, we’ve pulled together those resources into one place, along with new content that aims to give members a solid foundational knowledge of what AI is, what it does and how members can use it in the most valuable, reliable, ethical way. 

To give you a flavour of what ICAEW is offering in terms of resources on AI, we asked an AI to explain it to you:

This clip demonstrates just how powerful AI can be, but also how it should be used with a full understanding of its limitations and risks. AI has become very good at fooling us, whether it is imitating humans or confidently giving us inaccurate information. 

It’s important that accountants adopt AI with their eyes open; aware of its strengths and weaknesses, what kind of AI model is most effective for the task at hand and what needs to be done in order to mitigate the various risks that could come along with it. Accountants have an ethical duty to minimise AI biases by training them with good-quality data.

These resources will be updated constantly in the coming weeks as part of our Accountancy Intelligence series, including practical AI use cases, case studies and articles. Our video Masterclass series, for example, outlines various ways in which accountants can use AI in two minutes or less. 

AI is here to stay; it will increasingly become a presence both in the workplace and outside of it. The accountancy profession will have to adapt to a new, AI-enabled way of working, or risk obsolescence. Embracing AI also offers the profession an opportunity to become more efficient, productive and able to deliver more value to clients and organisations. 

Visit ICAEW’s Artificial Intelligence hub to access our current suite of resources and start your journey towards embracing AI.