A recent Journal of Accountancy article by Kevin Brewer notes that finance leaders are still concerned about the expanded use of generative AI programs, such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, but more than a quarter of them say that hasn't stopped their organizations from experimenting with the technology.

According to the first quarter AICPA & CIMA Economic Outlook Survey, 71% of executives said they were at least moderately concerned about potential privacy, ethical or accuracy risks associated with the use of generative AI tools, with 42% expressing significant concern. The survey adds that the level of concern about the risks is about the same as the previous quarter. This quarter, only 6% of respondents expressed "no concern at all" about the tools.

The survey was conducted in February and included 275 qualified responses from CPAs who hold leadership positions, including CFO or controller, in their companies.

About 26% of respondents said their organizations are experimenting with generative AI tools in key operations, and 6% said they have already implemented the technology in one or more business applications. Half of respondents said they haven't considered the use of the tools.  

"Managing risk and optimizing the efficiency of these tools will be core competencies going forward," Tom Hood, CPA/CITP, CGMA, AICPA & CIMA's executive vice president–Business Engagement and Growth, said in a news release. "We recommend that finance teams start small and ramp up strategically based on their early insights into the technology, with a strong focus on data security and intellectual property protections throughout the process."

Jason Staats, a former firm leader who helped CPA.com design a generative AI toolkit, said during the Digital CPA Conference in December that such tools "may require a different level of investment and learning than we've had to make before."

According to the survey, the top functions for test runs are sales and marketing (42%), IT and risk management (37%), core business operations (30%), and finance and strategy (27%).

Respondents weren't asked about potential regulation in this area, but they were asked about the need for underlying data to be "subject to some form of independent assessment, or review and assurance." About 54% said they viewed this kind of review as "significantly important" to mitigate risks, while only 2% said they viewed it as "not at all important."

As the top challenges facing organizations at this time, the survey identifies:

• Inflation maintained the top spot on the top ten concerns list.
• Employee and benefit costs and availability of skilled personnel both moved up one to the #2 and #3 slots, displacing domestic economic conditions which dropped to the #4 position.
• Materials, supplies and equipment costs, regulatory requirements/changes and domestic political leadership, all three returned to the top ten in the #5, #6, and #7spots after falling out of the top ten in Q4.
• Financing (access/cost of capital) dropped two slots from #6 to #8.
• Staff turnover, continued its easing falling another slot to #9.
• Domestic competition fell from its appearance in the #5 position last quarter, to the #10 spot.

Liquidity, Stagnant/declining markets, and Developing new products, services, markets all dropped out of the top 10 this quarter.

For more research findings, get the survey at 1q-2024-eos-slides-final.pdf.