With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), many people wonder if robots will soon take over bookkeeping and other financial tasks. While it's true that AI can do some things better and faster than humans can, it's not likely that accountants will become obsolete any time soon. Here are three reasons why:

AI can't match humans regarding critical thinking and judgment.

One of the essential skills an accountant has is the ability to think critically and make sound judgments. However, this is something that AI can't do. Sure, AI can analyze data and identify patterns. Still, it lacks the human ability to reason and make decisions based on those patterns.

For example, let's say you're reviewing a financial statement and notice that something doesn't seem quite right. An AI might tell you that there's an anomaly in the data, but it wouldn't be able to tell you what that means or what you should do about it. Only a human accountant with the ability to reason and make judgments can figure out what the anomaly means and what, if anything, should be done about it. That's where critical thinking comes in.

Accounting is about more than just numbers.

Accounting can be seen as a dry, boring profession about numbers. But there's much more to accounting than that. Yes, math is an integral part of it, but so are people skills. After all, accounting is essentially the language of business, and you need to be able to communicate effectively to be successful in this field.

AI can certainly do amazing things with numbers, but it's not very good at dealing with people. In accounting, however, people skills are just as essential as math skills. That's because much of an accountant's job involves dealing with clients, co-workers, and upper management. AI can't replicate the human interaction that's so important in this profession.

AI can help improve efficiency in accounting, but it can't do the job by itself.

While AI can't replace human accountants, it can help them be more efficient and productive. Accounting Today states that AI can help "provide relief to financial directors and other employees during [the] busy season. Lessening the pressure and giving high performers room to think and plan."

For example, software programs can now handle many of the routine tasks that an accountant would generally have to do, such as data entry and transaction processing. It frees the accountant's time to focus on more critical tasks, such as analysis and decision-making.

AI also creates predictive models that can provide insights into future trends. This information can be extremely valuable for making strategic decisions about where to invest resources or how to price products and services. Again, while AI can generate this type of information, it's up to human accountants to use it.

So, while AI is sure to impact the accounting profession, it's not likely to replace human accountants any time soon. Accountants who can embrace new technologies and use them to improve efficiency will be in an excellent position to succeed in the future.