AI & Automation's Role in Alleviating the Shortage of AP Professionals

The US is currently going through an accounting professional shortage. Since 1990, the number of people taking the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam decreased by almost 50 percent. With less and less interest from younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z paired with the growing retirement rates amongst Baby Boomers, the number of practicing accountants is declining. 

This poses a unique and often overwhelming challenge for businesses, who still need the vital services accounting professionals—like those in AP—provide. 

While the shortage is undoubtedly daunting—experts estimate that the US currently lacks 340,000 accounting professionals—the situation isn’t entirely bleak. In the wake of this lack of financial professionals, new and innovative technologies have advanced at rapid rates to help fill the gaps left by this shortage. The technologies leading this trend? AI and automation work to help current accountants manage their workload and alleviate the stress that the shortage of financial professionals has put on businesses across every industry.  

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at how AI and automation are helping AP professionals and why this technology is here to stay, even if and when accountants make a comeback.  

What Does AI and Automation Do for AP Professionals? 

Companies both new and established have taken note of not only the shortage of accounting professionals but also the potential for technological advances to fill those gaps.  

As previously mentioned, AI and automation are leading the pack in terms of popularity and usefulness for AP teams. In a survey by Intuit QuickBooks, 98% of respondents reported using AI to help clients and their businesses in the past 12 months. Additionally, RGP discovered that 43% of financial decision-makers are investing in more end-to-end automation as a direct result of the ongoing shortage of CPAs. 

But what makes AI and automation beneficial tools for professionals feeling the stress of more work and fewer graduates interested in entry-level positions? 

AI: Intelligently Solving Workforce Stressors 

AI has integrated into nearly every industry—and finance is no different. For finance professionals, it’s most commonly used to:

• Manage risk and fraud 

• Enable transparency and compliance 

• Automate operations, driving down costs 

For AP teams in particular, AI often takes the form of optical character recognition (OCR), which helps them perform 2-way and 3-way matching, invoice routing, and line-by-line audits in a fraction of the time that traditional ways would require. Pairing this efficiency with a smaller team or an organization that can’t find a new AP controller greatly reduces the negative impact of the financial professional shortage.  

As illustrated in the more general examples above, there are numerous ways AI can be leveraged by teams who are feeling the pinch of a shrinking workforce. AI can supplement the work that would normally be done by an additional staff member thanks to its adaptability and continuous learning capabilities. While not a perfect fix, when used shrewdly, AI is a great tool to alleviate the numerous stressors that AP professionals are struggling with without adding more work to their plates. 

Automation: Bidding Farewell to Manual Tasks 

Automation is another natural choice in software that works to keep organizations on track in their AP departments, regardless of the ongoing staff shortage. Why? From a technical standpoint, automation can be easily implemented into existing finance ecosystems, and can almost instantaneously: 

• Improve supplier relationships 

• Enhance approval controls 

• Speed up invoice approval and reconciliation 

• Improve insights into spending trends 

• Boost fraud detection and prevention 

With these traditionally manual tasks now handled via automation, even a reduced AP team can work more efficiently. This efficiency breeds not only higher-value work opportunities but also improved job satisfaction. 

When considering a slimmed-down accounting professional job pool, it’s more important than ever that businesses keep their current employees happy, engaged, and invested in continuing to leverage their degrees and experience for AP success. 60% of accounting teams believe that technology like automation (and AI) helps retain staff members and allows them to be more successful.  

AI + Automation: The Perfect Combination for Working Smarter, Not Harder 

With the current shortage of accounting professionals projected to continue and worsen, financial teams and AP professionals must prepare to adjust to the challenges and constraints this will bring to their day-to-day operations. Relying on AI and automation to handle manual tasks and other time-consuming processes can free up these vital accounting professionals to do more with less time and team members.  

If your business is looking for a way to make the most of your AP team’s efforts, experience, and time, schedule a demo with one of DocuPhase’s automation experts today!