AI is helping accountants and bookkeepers work faster, automate repetitive tasks and reduce cognitive load. But as AI moves beyond calculation and automation into writing, analysing, explaining, brainstorming and reasoning, an interesting question emerges: what happens to the thinking skills we developed by doing those things ourselves?

In this episode of the Accounting Apps Podcast, I explore how AI may be changing the way accountants and bookkeepers think. I look at neuroplasticity, the “useful struggle” involved in developing expertise, and why professional judgement becomes even more important when AI can produce a polished answer in seconds.

Technology has always allowed accountants to shift attention away from repetitive activities. Spreadsheets removed much of our manual arithmetic. Accounting software automated processes that once took hours. AI is another step along that path, but there is an important distinction between using technology to remove cognitive clutter and allowing it to do the valuable thinking for us.

• 🧠 Neuroplasticity and accounting expertise: Repeatedly completing tasks such as bank reconciliations builds pattern recognition and experience. When we stop practising particular cognitive skills, the way we use and develop those skills can change.
• 🤖 AI can remove cognitive clutter: Summarising information, drafting routine correspondence, extracting information and preparing meeting notes are examples of where AI can reduce workload and create more space for professional thinking.
• 🔍 Don’t outsource the useful struggle: Investigating something that doesn’t look right, testing ideas and forming hypotheses are part of developing accounting expertise. Rather than immediately asking AI for an answer, spend time developing your own view first.
• 💡 Use AI to challenge your reasoning: There is an important difference between asking AI, “Tell me what’s wrong,” and asking it to test a hypothesis you have already developed. AI can act as a second set of eyes while you remain actively involved in the thinking.
• 🎯 Professional judgement becomes more valuable: Materiality, professional scepticism, ethics, context, relationships and knowing when something simply doesn’t smell right become increasingly important as AI produces more of the first draft.

Episode resources and links:

Debunking Brain Myths: What’s Really Holding You Back from Change with Sarah McKay

https://podcasts.apple.com/bm/podcast/debunking-brain-myths-whats-really-holding-you-back/id792555885?i=1000700760179

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392560878_Your_Brain_on_ChatGPT_Accumulation_of_Cognitive_Debt_when_Using_an_AI_Assistant_for_Essay_Writing_Task

Exam Study Expert

https://examstudyexpert.com/dr-sarah-mckay/

Dr Sarah McKay home page : https://drsarahmckay.com/ (Neuroscience for real life, with a focus on women’s brain health. For women, professionals and organisations.)

If this episode helped you, the best way to support the show is to leave a review somewhere as it helps more people find us. And if you want to continue the conversation, come find me Heather Smith | Accountant and Storyteller on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

AI and automation are changing accounting, but the bigger opportunity is not simply automating individual tasks. In this episode of the Accounting Apps Podcast, I speak with John Munden, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloud Office, about rethinking workflows, connecting fragmented data and preparing accounting firms for a world where more compliance work happens automatically.

We explore why successful technology adoption starts with understanding the problem you are trying to solve. John shares his perspective on change management, including mapping workflows before introducing new software, involving the team in the process and developing internal champions who can support adoption.

Key discussion points:

• Rethink workflows before adding AI. Rather than bolting AI onto existing processes, firms should understand how work moves through the practice, identify the problem they are solving and redesign workflows around the capabilities of their technology.
• Connected data creates a stronger foundation. John discusses overcoming data silos through integrations, APIs and two-way syncing, with the goal of creating a reliable single source of truth across the practice.
• Experimentation needs a path to production. Vibe coding, bots and AI-powered automations can accelerate ideas and create useful prototypes, but firms also need to consider maintenance, security, data storage and what happens when the person who created an automation leaves.
• The accounting career pathway is changing. As more junior-level production and compliance work becomes automated or completed offshore, firms need new ways to help emerging accountants learn what good work looks like and develop professional judgement.
• Communication, advisory and professional judgement become increasingly important. As technology handles more repetitive work, accountants have an opportunity to spend more time interpreting information, communicating with clients and providing meaningful advice.

The conversation ultimately comes back to what accountants can do with the time technology gives them. Automation may increasingly handle repetitive compliance and administrative work, but professional judgement, relationships and responsibility remain important. The opportunity is to use AI, automation and connected technology to create space for accountants to have better conversations, deliver stronger advisory services and spend more time being accountants.

Episode resources and links:

John Munden https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmunden/

Cloudoffis https://cloudoffis.com.au/

If this episode helped you, the best way to support the show is to leave a review somewhere as it helps more people find us. And if you want to continue the conversation, come find me Heather Smith | Accountant and Storyteller on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU

As AI and automation become increasingly embedded in accounting workflows, we spend a lot of time asking what technology can do. But perhaps there is another question worth exploring: what does using AI do to us as accountants and bookkeepers?

In this thought bubble episode of the Accounting Apps Podcast, I explore professional identity and why being proud to call yourself an accountant matters. Inspired by Professor Megan Hess’s work on accounting ethics, professional identity and the public interest, I consider how our connection to the profession influences scepticism, integrity and our willingness to question what is put in front of us.

Technology can remove repetitive work and give us more time for valuable conversations, investigation and critical thinking. But when systems increasingly recommend, calculate, analyse and explain on our behalf, we also need to make sure we retain the knowledge and confidence to challenge them.

• Professional identity matters: Being proud to identify as an accountant or bookkeeper connects us with the ethics, integrity and responsibilities of our profession.
• Beware of automation bias: When technology confidently produces an answer, there is a risk we trust it simply because “the system said so”. Professional scepticism remains essential.
• Understand the accounting behind the technology: Accountants need enough foundational knowledge to recognise when a balance sheet, GST calculation, spreadsheet or AI-generated output simply does not make sense.
• Human conversations remain incredibly valuable: Client conversations can uncover significant information that might never surface through a standard workflow, automated process or routine questioning.
• AI can strengthen the profession: Removing repetitive tasks can create more time for judgement, investigation and critical thinking. The challenge is ensuring we continue developing the skills required to question technology and take responsibility for the outcome.

Ultimately, this is not an argument for keeping humans manually involved in every accounting process. It is about making sure that as technology takes on more of the work, we continue to understand, question and exercise professional judgement.

AI, automation and spreadsheets are tools we work alongside. Our professional identity is something different. Whatever part of the accounting and bookkeeping profession you belong to, understand the value of what you do, own your expertise and be proud to call yourself an accountant.

Episode resources and links:

https://www.sir.advancedleadership.harvard.edu/articles/accounting-ethics-professional-identity-public-interest

https://www.alexandriabrief.com/dash-overspent-its-budget-by-3-7-million-a-spreadsheet-error-hid-it-for-months/

If this episode helped you, the best way to support the show is to leave a review somewhere as it helps more people find us. And if you want to continue the conversation, come find me Heather Smith | Accountant and Storyteller on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/HeatherSmithAU/

Accounting Apps newsletter: http://accountingapps.io/

Accounting Apps Mastermind: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XeroMasterMind

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ANISEConsulting

X: https://twitter.com/HeatherSmithAU