An Argumentative Research Paper

Submitted to:

Sir Geoffrey Girardo

Submitted by:

Apolinario, John Paul

Seville, Erickson

Payosalan, Ella

Secuya, Samantha Rose P.

October 2018
 I. Introduction

Globalization’s effects have been widely felt by the people around the world, whether

directly or indirectly. A computer software is a form of advancement in technology which

continues to shape globalization. This gives rise to accounting software which aims to provide

efficient and accurate business information needed by companies as globalization spread across

the globe.

As globalization continue to persist, it then calls for automation, and these Softwares

are able to provide such automation, this poses a great threat to professionals and their jobs –

putting both at stake of possible obsolescence.

This paper aims to prove that despite the fact that technology has shown evidence for

its practicality in the field of accounting, has proven its efficiency, has advanced its accuracy

than human beings, a computer software will still not be able to replace professionals (i.e.

accountants) because complex technology costs a considerate amount of money;

implementation takes extensive and complicated procedures; and professionals possess a

higher level of ethical understanding compared to mere machines.

i. Background of the Study

‘A.I.’ was coined by John McCarthy, an American computer scientist in 1956 at The

Dartmouth conference where the discipline was born. Today, it is an umbrella term that

encompasses everything from robotic process automation to actual robotics. It has gained

prominence recently due, in part, to big data, or the increase in speed, size, and variety of data

businesses are now collecting. As defined in John McCarthy: Computer scientist known as the
father of AI, AI (artificial intelligence) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by

machines especially computer systems (Childs, 2011). These processes include learning (the

acquisition of information and rules for using the information), reasoning (using the rules to

reach approximate or definite conclusions), and self-correction. Particular applications of AI

include expert systems, speech recognition and machine vision.

Knight (1984) stressed how machines have always posed a risk on employees or

workers since then. He recognized the possible effects of machines taking over the tasks of

these employees or workers. Knight stated:

The idea of workers being replaced by machines is nothing new to the world,
though. During the Industrial Revolution, many workers were replaced by new,
efficient machines, and this exciting and productive period of history also caused a
great deal of poverty, unemployment, and upheaval, just as any major economic change
does (Knight, 1984).

II. Body

Technology has shown evidence for its practicality. Technology has evolved from

communicating useful information such as weather forecasts through satellite radios in the late

1800s to communicating business information through highly-developed computers in the

early 2000s. As technology progressed, the demand for it, advanced as well. Nowadays, people,

especially businessmen, tend to invest more on technology to achieve efficient business

operations. A specific type of technology, dubbed as compute software, has shown evidence

that it can provide the efficiency and practicality most businesses demand. As competitive

market grows, the demand for practicality increases as well. In a recent survey conducted by

PwC, it reported that in the immediate future, businessmen are looking for a computer software

to alleviate repetitive, menial tasks, such as paperwork (82%), scheduling (79%), and

timesheets (78%) (pWc, 2017).

 Technology has proven its efficiency to improve and facilitate the interaction and the

exchange of the information with the client, reducing the amount of papers and in doing so, it

is advantageous for it saves numerous amount of time and effort. According to The Balance,

computer software has already spread throughout different fields of profession such as

manufacturing, banking, law, and many more industries (Najjar, 2018). This increases the

possibility that highly advanced computers will invade the accounting profession in the near

future. These computer software has enabled businesses to shift from manual to automation,

making operations efficient and effective.

As technology continues to improve, it overrides human accuracy in terms of generating

financial information, avoiding errors, producing timely financial statements. Andrew McAfee

of Harvard Business Review Blog reiterated that “As the amount of data goes up, the

importance of human judgment should go down.” According to his review years of studies of

algorithms vs. human judgment by various experts, he concluded that we should not rely on

experts anymore: “The practical conclusion is that we should turn many of our decisions,

predictions, diagnoses, and judgments—both the trivial and the consequential—over to the

algorithms. There’s just no controversy any more about whether doing so will give us better

results." On the other hand, Tom Davenport argues, that “intuition has an important role to

play. Neither an all-intuition nor an all-analytics approach will get you to the promised land.”

Granting computer software has surpassed human practicality, efficiency, and

accuracy, these qualities of computers are still not sufficient enough to substitute professional

accountants with machines, which leads to the possible obsolescence of the accounting

profession. Professional accountants’ value to a business or company is irreplaceable given the

fact that these professionals has ethical understanding, are capable of critical thinking and
decision making. This results to retention of professional accountants. In addition to that,

technology which involves computer software encompasses the need to invest not just financial

resources but also time and effort, the outflow of these resources causes the company or firm

to incur more cost and/or expenses rather than benefit and/or income.

Complex professions require complex technologies. Consequently, creating or

purchasing complex technologies and then subsequently training its user(s) cost a lot of money.

Diverting from basic to complex is somehow convoluted. Generating financial statements from

massive sets of data requires intricate process. In consonance with this, technologies involved

to achieve such results are also complex which would lead to an additional training of the

employees who would use such technology. With this, costs will be incurred as a

supplementary expense for a certain firm.

Bone (1993) said, one of the major drawbacks towards spending is the way in which

payback (the number of years the company requires to recover its original investment from net

cash flows) is figured. Many expensive projects – including the installation of a robot – can

generate income beyond the payback period.

Furthermore, he emphasized how automation always involves capital investment that

must be amortized through cost savings on each unit produced (Bone, 1993). Business

information, on the other hand, cannot be quantified by units produced which makes it

impossible to fully measure whether or not the company has yet to earn back its investment.

Implementation of a new technology involves maximum effort from the management

and its users, for it demands complicated procedures which may take multiple resources, (e.g.
time, capital). Adopting a new technology like these advanced computer software introduces

new risks into an organization. Computer software systems may have trouble in adapting to

change or with measured efforts which causes to mislead it, that is why the businesses will

need to monitor their computer software systems’ performance. In the same way, when

accountants use computer software for information processing in preparation of the financial

statements, the auditing profession will have to develop standards to evaluate the reliability of

these systems (Bible, 2017). In that case it implementation of a new technology is a long-term

process, considering its complexity, its users will need time to adjust and familiarize it. The

management is also expected to learn it for them to effective and efficient; therefor, training

the management will also be needed. When cost-analysis approach is used it is to be expected

that the cost ultimately exceeds the benefit derived from the said technology.

Another need to be addressed as computer software system is implemented is the call

for employee competency. Bone (1993) cited Jon Van in his series, “Recrafting America”:

“Today’s successful manufacturer needs employees who can perform such multiple tasks as

operating robots, identifying symptoms of defective robots, and performing simple

maintenance. Most of all, workers must understand the production process and work with

robots as a team. They must become part of the production process.” This indicates that as

complex technology enhances, the call for workers or employees with enhanced skill increases,

making any professionals, more importantly accountants, indispensable, thus making them

insusceptible to obsolescence.

Computer software system implementation cost a considerable amount of time and

effort, much more on software system maintenance. Reynolds (2003) cited a case wherein

vulnerability of technology is greatly compromised once the personnel is not fully educated or
informed of how a computer software system works. He highlighted how businesses will

increasingly become the point of attack by hackers using sophisticated weapons such as worms

and viruses that can be used for precise attacks (Reynolds, 2003).

Significant business information used by businessmen in making essential decisions are

at stake. Reynolds (2003) stated that the computing environment has become enormously

complex, as networks, computers, operating systems, applications, routers, and gateways that

are driven by hundreds of millions of lines of code are interconnected. This environment

continues to increase in complexity day by day. The number of possible entry points to a

network expands continually as more and more devices are added to it, thus increasing the

possibility for security breaches to take place. This calls for advance trainings for staff who

shall handle the computer software system which consequently involves a considerable amount

of time and effort which may result to cost outweighing the benefit.

Professionals possess a higher level of ethical understanding compared to mere

machines, such as their ability to discern, capability to consider. The term ‘ethics’ has been

defined as “inquiry into the nature and grounds of morality where the term morality is taken to

mean moral judgments, standards and rules of conduct (Fraedrich, Ferrell, & Ferrell, 2012).

Fraedrich, et. al (2015) identified steps in making ethical decision-making. The first

step is to recognize that an ethical issue exists, requiring an individual or work group to choose

among several actions that various stakeholders will ultimately evaluate as right or wrong. A

mere machine can generate a more accurate business information but it is not able to recognize

whether or not an ethical issue exists. If a machine fails on the first step of ethical decision-

making, how can it proceed to the following steps? Ethical awareness is the ability to perceive
whether a situation or decision has an ethical dimension (Ferrell, 3027). In line with this, A.I.

has yet to evolve into a technology possessing this type of ability. Humans alone has this type

of ability. Indeed, computer software systems are capable of replacing an accountant’s basic

works such as generating of financial statements and the like, yet it cannot replace an

accountant’s function which is considered as functions which really add value to a business,

e.g. auditing, evaluating businesses’ internal control effectivity and efficiency, providing

financial advices vital to economic decision-making, more importantly making ethical

decisions.

Moreover, Ferrell, et. Al. (2017) also mentioned fundamental values for identifying

ethical issues – these are widely used values for evaluating activities that could become ethical

issues. These are the following: a.) integrity – refers to being whole, sound, and in an

unimpaired condition, b.) honesty – refers to truthfulness or trustworthiness, lastly c.) fairness

– the quality of being just, equitable, and impartial (fairness overlaps with the concepts of

justice, equity and equality).

While machines possess a higher level of practicality, efficiency, and accuracy

compared to professionals, key values namely: integrity, honesty, and fairness, can only be

associated with humans, i.e. professionals. These attributes clearly overshadow computer

software’s practicality, efficiency, and accuracy. This suggests that a business cannot forgo a

professional’s integrity, honesty, and fairness. Accountants, for example, are trained to have

****** (Salosagcol, ****). Accountants are primarily trained to be such due to the fact that

their profession is constantly exposed to issues that are ethical in nature.

 According to Will Bible (2017), “humans will not win a data processing competition

with machines. At the same time, computer software systems are not skilled at self-correction

in new circumstances. When these systems misses, it often misses badly (Bible, 2017).” This

matter is continuously being discussed in a debate related to the ethics of a computer software.

Since a computer software is trained on historical data which what you input in the machine is

what you would likely get. This can form the bias embedded in what is true, considering this

vast change of information from time to time in the field of accounting. What then is the value

of human professionals? Take medicine as an example. Most people would prefer humans for

an operation rather than a robot. A robot's "clinical" approach could implore a different way of

concerns and issues from the patient compared with a doctor's "softer" approach. Same way of

saying we humans conduct tasks for on the feeling, rather than just being procedural, it is

natural for us to care and have a good ethical understanding towards others.

Lilford (2017) concluded that a computer "may become a second opinion, or perhaps

even a first opinion, but we will still make the final call.” Just like in medicine this also applies

to accountancy. In a report released on 2016 "The Future of Professional Learning and

Entrepreneurship" by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) and the Institute

of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), conducted by range of

professionals, there was unanimous consensus that the real value of the accounting profession

lies in its members' integrity and ethics. Some of them discussed that clients would most likely

have more in audit opinions issued by a humans compared to robots.

Studies show that computer software systems can replace accountants’ basic functions

such as keeping track of receipts, provide basic financial reports; however, a computer software

can’t perform certain tasks of the accountant such as giving an advice on tax planning, discuss
operations, review client goals, assure compliance with certain laws, policies and/or

regulations. These tasks require rigorous work which makes the accounting professionals

irreplaceable, provided of what is the current standing of the technology in the Philippines.

“The rapid pace of change in client industries and the expansion of complicated regulations

denotes that human controller services will be necessary to ensure that compliance

requirements are met and financial controls are sound, (Najjar, 2018).” A computer software

system can perform tasks such as identifying patterns in the data more efficiently than humans,

enabling the businesses to gain more insight out of their data.

III. Conclusion Commented [1]: I KNOW SAKIT KAAYO SA IMONG

HEART PAG HIMO NIMO ANI NA CONCLUSION JAM
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This paper has presented the implications of a computer software and how it poses a
Commented [2]: Sakit mo lang </3
threat to the professionals (i.e. accountants). Although a computer software has proven its

practicality, efficiency, and accuracy, the benefits yielded from computer software systems

cannot outweigh the advantages from hiring, employing and retaining professional accountants

who are capable of ethical decision-making which ultimately adds more business value to any

type of enterprise. This has led to the researchers being able to conclude that the possibility of

obsolescence of the accounting profession, as of the moment, is far from probable. Yet, this

does not cancel out that the accountants are absolutely immune to their possible replacement

by the A.I. As for obsolescence, with the kind of technology at hand, professional accountants

can be confident to still be dominating the field of accountancy in the corporate world.
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