We hear a lot these days about the risks associated with using artificial intelligence models in business and professional work, but what about the risks associated with not using AI?
Accounting firms face new challenges as the industry rapidly evolves. Businesses have considered the adoption of AI technology to increase efficiency, accuracy and capacity. But this is not without expressing their reservations. A
To successfully implement an AI strategy, businesses must first identify areas where AI could be most beneficial, and it may not jump out at you right away. Many companies have identified their security and compliance environment as the starting point of their AI journey. Early adoption could be as small as machine learning algorithms identifying sensitive information to redact and progress further to become sophisticated enough to identify complex cybersecurity threats. Whatever the eventual role of AI in accounting processes, protecting business and customer information is an area where AI can make a substantial difference.
Understanding the risks: with and without AI
Among the concerns surrounding the use of AI in accounting are potential risks to data security and privacy. A successfully integrated AI model would likely have access to customers’ sensitive financial and personal information. Additionally, businesses are beginning to understand the ethical dilemmas associated with AI, such as bias. The quality of an AI model depends on the data it is trained on; an insufficiently trained model can introduce errors or biases that can produce inaccurate results with potentially serious consequences.
When using AI, it is essential to ensure that the company has the resources to understand its AI strategy and the complexity of the model so that it can be properly transparent with its users about the inputs and outputs. Additionally, businesses should ensure that these templates help them comply with their existing security and privacy protocols and regulations.
Businesses that resist the introduction of AI run the risk of losing accuracy and efficiency, but in terms of cybersecurity, the risks of failing to take advantage of AI are much greater. Cyberattacks against accounting firms are
Digital transformations, the growth of cloud environments and the increased reliance on automated systems have changed the way information is managed. Employees regularly create, share, process, store and manage countless documents containing sensitive information. With more and more information being exchanged digitally, the importance of cybersecurity, particularly in identity management, is growing as cyberattacks increasingly target user identities through phishing and other methods to compromise user credentials. Due to all of these factors, it is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to maintain security with manual processes.
For example, accounting firms experience high turnover and many employees leave the company after only a few years of service. Companies also hire a large number of young graduates each year. Keeping track of the identity of active users on their networks and ensuring that these new users are properly trained in company security policies can be difficult for accounting firms with so many people coming and going.
AI also has the ability to monitor abnormal online activities.
Leveraging AI to Improve Cybersecurity
AI’s ability to quickly collect and analyze large amounts of information can significantly improve an organization’s cybersecurity posture by automating threat detection, analysis, and response.
It is capable of analyzing activity across the entire enterprise, from network traffic to system logs and user activity. An important feature of AI is its ability to detect patterns, which is useful when applied to accounting procedures, but it is also essential for recognizing malicious activity, whether external attacks or abnormal activities from authorized users.
Traditional threat detection systems are capable of recognizing attacks with known signatures, such as those included in MITER systems.
An advanced knowledge work automation platform can also provide accounting firms with AI-driven insight control over sensitive or restricted information, reducing the risk of manual error or employee surveillance.
AI also plays an important role in the fight against phishing, one of the
To avoid some of these risks, many companies create their own information exchange portals. But people still send their private financial information, and you still need to make sure you’re taking the appropriate security measures.
AI can add an important layer of security to these exchanges. It can, for example, detect if an attachment contains information that needs to be redacted. It can then automatically assign security levels, or access permissions and privileges, to these documents.
AI algorithms use natural language processing, which can understand and analyze language used in emails, identifying anomalous patterns, unusual requests, and suspicious use of imitated writing styles that could signal that ‘an email is fraudulent.
Cybersecurity risks are more costly than ever and are expected to continue to rise. Companies that adopt AI and take action can mitigate these risks and increase their capacity with technology to better monitor these threats.
When supported by a workforce that understands how to operate it successfully, AI can strengthen the cybersecurity of accounting firms while freeing employees from having to manually monitor their security environment. Businesses have the opportunity to achieve big digital transformations with AI, but only if they truly understand the power and benefits it offers, and how to use it effectively to help them accomplish some of their critical tasks.
