Review of Management Accounting in a Digital Economy (Published)
The paper gives an overview of the transformation in management accounting practices in a digital economy. Advanced technologies such as big data analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and blockchain digitised traditional accounting ways by providing real-time data processing, enhanced decision-making, and strategic insights. The review focuses on how technological innovations have changed data collection, analysis, and reporting links, moving attention away from record-keeping to predictive and prescriptive analytics. Discussions are the automation of routine tasks, real-time financial reporting developments, and increased involvement of management accountants in strategic planning and risk management. The review talks about cloud accounting systems, machine learning in managing costs, blockchain for financial transparency and security, and how digital transformation opens up some critical challenges related to data privacy concerns, security risks, and massive upskilling on the part of accounting professionals. The paper addresses these issues by examining strategies to mitigate identified risks and bridging skill gaps through specific training and educational efforts. It further reviews the emerging trends in predictive and prescriptive analytics and discusses their potential applications in Management Accounting. The review sheds light on changing regulatory scenarios that will impact digital practices in accounting. The implications of this digital transformation are huge and thus require a rethink in the role of management accounting within organisations. It calls for management accountants to reposition themselves in the field and stay relevant by embracing new technologies while attaining strategic competencies, enabling them to drive value creation against the drastic changes in the digital age.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, big data analytics, cloud accounting, machine learning, strategic planning
In What Way Does Artificial Intelligence Influences Audit Practice? Empirical Evidence from Southwest, Nigeria (Published)
AI has gained significant traction as an innovative tool for automating tasks, enhancing data analytics, and reducing the risk of errors in auditing processes. This study investigated the impact of adopting artificial intelligence (AI) on the quality of audit practice in Nigeria, focusing on data mining, machine learning, and image recognition as proxies for the independent variable. Population was 251 accounting firms in southwest Nigeria, with a sample size of 159, purposively determined. The study utilized structured questionnaires for data collection, with regression analysis, and correlation matrices adopted for the analysis. The findings revealed a significant positive relationship between data mining and image recognition with the quality of audit practice in Nigeria. Machine learning, however, showed an insignificant negative relationship. This suggests that AI, particularly data mining and image recognition, can enhance audit quality in Nigeria. As a result, the study recommended that Nigerian audit professionals and firms should consider incorporating data mining techniques into their audit processes to improve effectiveness and error detection.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Data mining, Quality of audit practice., image recognition, machine learning