AI to help chartered accountants deliver high quality audits: ICAI prez

Artificial Intelligence will help chartered accountants deliver high quality audits as well as increase the number of transactions being looked at, ICAI President Aniket Sunil Talati has said and highlighted that efforts are on to provide the best skill sets to its members.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has more than 3.80 lakh members and over 8 lakh students.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are being used in various sectors.

In a recent interaction with PTI, Talati said he sees AI as a big change that is coming into the audit profession.

"If there is a good AI system, then there is so much one can look at in terms of transactions. AI will report back to you in terms of any deviations, red flags... and will play a huge role in assisting chartered accountants to deliver high quality audit.

"We are working with our members to train and upskill them to have the best skill sets to understand AI," he said.

Over the years, the accounting profession has moved from paper ledgers to calculators to computers.

According to Talati, AI is going to change a lot of aspects and will help chartered accountants look at a wider number of transactions.

"There are pitfalls also and you need to be trained to understand AI. We are also working on technology tools to members to use in audit. Those also will get embedded with AI," he noted.

Amid instances of concerns over financial and governance issues at some startups, the ICAI President said the institute is trying to have collaborations with startups and asserted that there is a robust regulatory system to deal with abberations.

"We have an ecosystem of more than 90,000 startups... we as a country have developed a very strong ecosystem and a lot of unicorns have come in," he said.

Set up under an Act of Parliament in 1949, ICAI will be completing 100 years in 2049. It is now collaborating with IIM, Ahmedabad to prepare a vision document.