Lawyers and accountants at risk with AI?

by Giovanni Currò Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work and live professions, which are not exempt from this change. Artificial intelligence and its applications they are rapidly transforming many professions.

Dropping the topic purely in the specific field of the legal, commercial and tax professions, artificial intelligence is definitely introducing new opportunities and challenges.

One of the most interesting uses of AI for Lawyers, for example, is the predictive analysis of legal results. The systems can review thousands of rulings and similar cases to determine the most likely outcome of a new case, including a court’s final decision.

For accountants and auditors, AI offers powerful tools for auditing, reviewing complex financial statements and reporting possible fraud. The same is true in tax, systems can examine tax returns, payments and other data to identify anomalies and suspicious patterns that could indicate cases of evasion.

Bots can also be used as “virtual assistants” to answer basic customer questions, provide information on compliance, deadlines and ever-changing tax regulations.

All these various types of support clearly give rise to a spontaneous question about the usefulness or otherwise of some work activities today placed at the expense of professionals, if not directly, of their close collaborators.

He postpones The Potentially Large Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Economic Growth (Briggs/Kodnani), made by Goldman Sachs published on March 26, 2023 estimates that about 300 million jobs are at risk due to the spread of AI. In the next 7 years, the professions most in danger will be those that require repetitive skills, manual jobs, but also highly specialized ones. However, the research highlighted that the adoption of AI could lead to a global GDP growth of 7% over the next 10 years, creating new job opportunities in other sectors.

Analyzing a database of more than 900 businesses, economists at Goldman Sachs estimate that around two-thirds of occupations are exposed to AI process automations. Possible process replacements range from a quarter to about half of the workload.

In the graph below, the sectors that have the greatest exposure to the impact of the automation of AI in the Euro area are reported, professionals and more generally the professional world will be affected at 34% and 31%.

In the specific of the professions, in the United States the administrative department will be the most affected with 46% of impact and the legal area is immediately after with 44%, while the financial area at 35%.

Not all that automated work will result in layoffs, the report also said. “Although the impact of AI on the labor market is likely to be significant, most jobs and industries are only partially exposed to automation and are therefore more likely to be integrated than replaced by AI” , write the authors.

Despite the obvious advantages in implementing AI, in fact, critical issues remain relating to accountability, lack of transparency and the exclusion of human judgment that AI can generate. The integration of artificial intelligence in the legal, financial and tax professions therefore requires, as in the rest of the jobs, a thoughtful and conscious approach. However, when implemented responsibly, AI can become an extremely useful tool for improving efficiency, reducing errors and deepening analyzes for the benefit of professionals and their clients.

Governments have the burden of interpreting this phenomenon that is already impacting the world of work in the best possible way, they have the duty to face this change, not only from the point of view of protecting citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms, but also by supporting the professional worlds that up to now have played a pivotal role in the dialogue between citizens and the Public Administration.

THE AUTHOR

Giovanni Currò, Chartered Accountant and Statutory Auditor with offices in Como and Rome, former Vice President of the VI Finance Commission of the XVIII Legislature. As a Deputy and currently continues to fight for the simplification of the Public Administration through the use of technological innovation. He has always been attentive to European economic phenomena and fiscal policy instruments.