While it offers a great benefit, the broad applicability of AI in society must be handled carefully and accountants have a key role to play.
TORONTO & LONDON, August 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) ACCA (the Association of Certified Public Accountants) and Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) reveal urgent need for the accounting profession to make connections between artificial intelligence (AI ) and their relationship to the environmental, social and governance dimensions (ESG).
When polling more than 5,700 respondents worldwide, including an expert panel of ACCA members in North America, the study takes a cautious tone, with less than half (43%) believing the impact of AI on your rights as an individual are positive, there is safety and personal security, degree of fairness, degree of election, degree of transparency. In North America, 30% of respondents believe this is the case.
Comments from North American respondents also show that:
- A significant 82% believe their leaders prioritize ethics as much as they do profit, compared with 66% globally.
- 70% believe the effects of AI on the general standard of living in society are positive.
- However, only 13% of your organization has implemented an ethical framework for using AI and 44% of respondents have a basic understanding of what an algorithm is.
ACCA and CA ANZ say in Ethics for Sustainable AI Adoption: Connecting AI and ESG that Accountants, with their explicit and longstanding commitment to ethical practices, are well positioned to help organizations on a responsible path for adoption by AI.
The report’s nine recommendations include the need to set a tone at the forefront of AI adoption by prioritizing an approach that is consistent with corporate values such as diversity and inclusion when considering the impact of AI on underrepresented groups , or fairness when it comes to recruiting or overseeing. of employees; and transparency, such as the appropriate disclosure of the use of AI to customers. Another recommendation for the profession is to challenge greenwashing and seek insights from AI tools to help with professional skepticism in examining whether the organization’s claims about sustainability, such as on achieving net zero targets, are matched for their performance. Suspicious claims need to be challenged.
Speaking of the global picture, Helen Brand, Chief Executive of ACCA says: ‘AI adoption must consider the needs of all, especially the under-represented and vulnerable in society. That’s why one of our recommendations is to ensure the profession exercises its professional judgement, because AI may create previously unseen situations. We recommend that accountants need to avoid over-reliance on simplistic checklist-based approaches which don’t give the full picture or leave space for unintended consequences.’
Also commenting on the global findings, Ainslie van Onselen, Chief Executive of CA ANZ adds: ‘Our report found that in order to ethically and sustainably adopt AI, organizations need effective governance mechanisms. This starts with setting the right tone and culture at the top and covers a range of areas from oversight and delivery procedures, to regulation and data governance. AI is a strategic endeavour that should be spearheaded by leaders who know and execute on the difference between what we have a right to do and what is the right thing to do. It’s important to build knowledge and skills at the intersection of AI, ethics and sustainable development. This aligns well to the accountancy profession which can play a key role in driving responsible adoption.’
The accounting profession worldwide is governed by the Code of Ethics (the “Code”) and its five core principles as established by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA): Integrity, Objectivity, Professional Competence and Due Diligence, Confidentiality and Conduct Professional.
