The Impact of Technology on Contemporary Accounting: An ABCD Perspective

Abstract

We live in an interconnected digital world of rapidly changing technology. This technology has created dynamic changes in nearly every field of study. The field of accounting is no exception in this regard. Four aspects of modern technology are having profound effect on the education, practice and research of contemporary accounting. These aspects of technology are what I call the ABCD of technology, where A stands for Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, B stands for Blockchain, C stands for Cybersecurity, and D stands for Data Analytics. There are two major objectives of this paper. The first objective is to briefly discuss the impact of the ABCD aspects of technology on contemporary accounting. The approach to pursuing this objective will be to initially provide a definition of each of these aspects of technology, followed by a discussion on how each aspect of technology is transforming contemporary accounting. This objective is addressed in the next section of the paper. The second objective of this paper, which is addressed in the third section of this paper, is to discuss how the field of accounting needs to change in order to adapt to the ABCD aspects of technology. The fourth section of the paper provides some concluding comments.