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Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are transforming professions worldwide, and accounting is no exception. From summarising policy documents to processing client data, AI promises faster workflows and reduced admin. But alongside these benefits comes a bigger question: how far should AI be allowed to influence professional judgement?

A team of Manchester researchers have been exploring this issue through in-depth research with accountancy firm Beever Struthers, looking at the use of generative AI through in-person observation, chat logs and interviews. Their early findings reveal that whilst AI is highly effective at streamlining repetitive tasks, if firms aren鈥檛 careful it could also start to encroach on areas where human expertise is essential. For example, AI-generated summaries may speed things up but risk losing crucial context, whilst the technology鈥檚 ability to make assumptions could blur lines of professional responsibility.

The team鈥檚 study highlights that accounting relies on more than technical analysis; client interactions, on-site fieldwork and mentoring are vital to developing the professional judgement that underpins trust in the field. These are skills AI cannot currently replicate.

Led by Dr Sung Hwan Chai, Professor Brian Nicholson and Dr Leonid Sokolovskyy the project aims to redefine what professional judgement means in an AI-enabled world, offering a framework that could help accountants to use generative AI responsibly, and harnessing its efficiencies while protecting the human insight that makes their work reliable.

Dr Chai explains: 鈥淥ur project has both academic and practical impact. First, we鈥檙e redefining what 鈥減rofessional judgement鈥� means in accounting 鈥� in a way that applies to all areas of the profession, not just auditing, and takes new technologies like AI into account. Second, we鈥檙e working with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) to create a report that will help accountants use generative AI responsibly and ethically in their work.鈥�