AI, blockchain and predicting the future: why management accountants are getting better at thinking about tomorrow

Bown uses specialist accounting software to pull together the data he needs, an Al-powered character-recognition tool to automatically process incoming invoices, and a forecasting platform that helps him demonstrate different outcomes.

With Al and other computationally-intensive statistical tools now available to management accountants, complex forecasts become easier to make. And importantly, Al can

help management accountants separate the signal from the noise in the data. 

“The ability to model your business, incorporate data from many different sources and run far more powerful and complex algorithms across it, could be gamechanging,” says Bittlestone. “The power of analytics from both a data integration and a modelling perspective can hugely improve finance’s ability to add insight."

He adds: "Where the management accountant can add the most value is to help understand what data matters. That's got to start with the fundamentals. How does your company create value?’

One system that could influence how the job is carried out is blockchain. “It's still debatable as to how much of an impact blockchain is going to have on internal company accounts,” says Bittlestone. “It is fundamentally a new governance model so it’s most valuable when there are multiple distrusted parties, for recording transactions between them."

So, inside companies, where that trust already exists, recording information on to a blockchain isn't necessary. But Bittlestone can envisage a future when the technology becomes useful because everyone across a given market is using it.

"[If you] get into a scenario in which the whole market [has] transactions recorded on blockchain, then it potentially makes a lot more sense because you could pass that automation straight through into your own internal bookkeeping."

Though technology is driving significant changes in the industry, management accountants are still absolutely critical for making sense of what the numbers are telling us.

“The fact that we'll have algorithms running and automation putting most of the books together in future doesn't mean you shouldn't understand why and how you do that, because that helps you make sure it's correct," says Bittlestone, “and communication is key. It's often forgotten about and seen as of secondary value to the core accountancy skill set. If you can't communicate to the business effectively, you're going to fail."

“The management accountant’s role isn't just in doing intelligent things with data,” adds Bittlestone. “The only way it adds value is if it’s passed to the right people in a format that they understand, and can help them make the right decisions.”

Bown credits studying with CIMA for helping him develop the skills he needs.

“It's given me the understanding to step outside away from | the numbers and not just focus on them,” says Bown of his CIMA CGMA professional qualification. "It made me more commercially focused, so | could have stepped into other roles within a business. Whether you're going into production or sales or the commercial team within a larger business, it's a more rounded qualification.”

Ultimately, while it's critical to learn about new technologies that are changing the profession, the vital skill is not so much in knowing how to operate them as how to apply them.

“Does every management accountant need to know how to use these new technologies? No," says Bittlestone. “Should every management accountant know where they should be applied? And how to do so most effectively? Definitely.”