As a technical practice, accounting needs to accept that technology and Gen AI are tools that will enable accountants to address ‘big questions’ and even attempt to solve ‘wicked problems’.
In the annual Future of Jobs reports released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), accountants and auditors are one of the jobs tagged as declining or with decreasing demand globally in the past years. This is further compounded by an Accounting Today report on May 22, 2023, that in an experiment, ChatGPT 4.0 comfortably passes the practice CPA exam after failing the first time six months before using ChatGPT 3.5. Is this the start of the end for accountants? Will Gen AI finally take over accountants’ and auditors’ jobs?
On the other hand, accountants contribute actively to the sustainability agenda of companies, partly spurred by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). In response to this, various international accounting organizations have taken steps to incorporate the accountant’s role in sustainability. IFRS Foundation formed the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in November 2021 and issued the first two sustainability reporting standards June 26, 2023. International Audit and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) issued the General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements or ISSA 5000 in November 2024. And just last March 13, 2025, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) revised the International Accounting Education Standards (IES) embedding sustainability as part of the initial professional development competency of professional accountants.
In my talk during the 12th KRA International Conference in Accounting held in Surabaya last June 3 to 4, 2025, I echoed the call of Prof. Garry Carnegie that it is time for us to redefine accounting for the 21st century and reflect these multi-faceted dimensions of accounting as a technical, social and moral practice. This requires a paradigm shift, not only for accountants but also for business and society to reconsider and accept.
As a technical practice, accounting needs to accept that technology and Gen AI are tools that will enable accountants to address “big questions” and even attempt to solve “wicked problems”. Big data and the use of non-financial ESG data are now part of the vocabulary that accountants need to articulate.
In an interview, Charlie Munger, an American investor, lawyer and philanthropist and the former Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway once said,”…Accounting is the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization…”
His statement reinforces the notion that accounting plays a key role in business. Interestingly, this is where accounting as a social practice comes in. The use of ESG reporting standards and the conduct of ESG assurance are platforms that accountants can use to evolve the language of business from conventional financial reporting towards its contributions to universal sustainability goals. It is a path towards expanding the accounting “lexicon” beyond traditional financial numbers to include non-financial information (e.g. ESG, human capital) and how digital technologies (e.g. Gen AI, blockchain) are fundamentally transforming business language structure and report delivery which affects both data integrity and user comprehension. Accountants need to identify and develop new “linguistic competencies” (e.g. data analytics communication of complex information). This provides an opportunity for accounting to enhance financial and sustainability literacy and inclusion, for a broader audience and remain relevant as a profession.
As a moral practice, accounting is inherently value-laded, with every decision carrying ethical implications that influence behavior and shape the moral order of organization and society. This moral practice shifts the focus from merely “how to do accounting” to “what should accounting do?” Thus, accounting should promote sustainable use of resources and foster accountability to a broader range of stakeholders not just shareholders or investors to ensure their flourishing. This includes people, society and even nature. Accountants are called to envision and develop not only technical but moral solutions to complex problems.
At the end, this nexus is not just an intersection of these three distinct concepts – sustainability, Gen AI and ethics – but it is where these three converge and offer a path towards retaining relevance to society. At this crossroad, accountants are called upon to ponder what it takes to redefine accounting as both a language of business and as a “technical, social and moral practice concerned with the sustainable utilization of resources and proper accountability to stakeholders to enable the flourishing of organizations, people and nature” according to Carnegie, Parker and Tsahuridu. This goes beyond financial record keeping, “debits and credits”, worksheets, and reports. It requires interdisciplinary perspectives and multidisciplinary approaches and impacts the accounting practice, research and teaching. Accountants are given the chance to reflect on what these all mean, find their core, and articulate how they can best serve the “public interest” and shape a better world.
Arnel Onesimo O. Uy is a Full Professor at the Department of Accountancy of the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University (DLSU). He is also the holder of the William and Dolores Bowler Chair in Accounting. He can be reached at arnel.uy@delasalle.ph.
The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.