AI an enabler, not a threat, for chartered accountants: Shyam Agarwal

Without the adoption and implementation of technology and various tech tools, without taking technology in your business, it will be very difficult to sustain.

- RITWIK MUKHERJEE

That is the widespread perception. The professions like chartered accountancy, audit, tax practices and so on, are no exception. Chartered Accountants, many think, are the most adaptive creatures on the planet.

Speaking to The Statesman, C.A Shyam Agarwal, Managing Partner, RG Agarwal and Sons, a leading Chartered Accountant firm running for more than 55 years now, explains the importance of technology adoption in this profession, how this technology adoption is happening and the way forward.

Excerpts:

Q: As we all know industry, across sectors, is adopting technology as much as possible. Business operations (be it product-driven or service-driven) are getting strengthened by technology adoption. So, is the professional service sector you belong to, also adopting technology, if so, in what way?

A: I would like to respond to your question in this way: technology is a disruptor in every sense, in every profession in the world today and we, as tax professionals or audit professionals or chartered accountants, we are no exception to this. So, technology has been evolving in our profession since long and with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), I would say it has been an enabler rather than a disruptor for our profession.

I will just give you an example that previously when we had started number crunching, we used to do on a manual basis, then calculator came into picture, then we had computers doing that. Now, with the advent of artificial intelligence, we have been doing a lot of things in this space, which is not only impacting the professionals but also involving technology with finance and improving our profession.