Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of this century's most exciting new technologies, and its use has spread like wildfire since ChatGPT was released in 2022. According to Deloitte, 74% of companies are testing Generative AI technologies, and 65% already use them internally.
AI presents both remarkable opportunities and significant challenges. Extensive regulations governing AI have yet to be established, so firms must proactively establish guidelines for its use.
This article explores why your firm needs AI guidelines and offers practical steps to help you develop these essential frameworks.
Why do we need AI guidelines?
The regulatory environment surrounding AI is still developing. There are few, if any, specific rules and policies governing its use in professional settings, including accounting. This regulatory vacuum makes it challenging to create enforceable AI policies, as policies must be specific and trackable. Instead, you should focus on crafting flexible and adaptive AI guidelines that can evolve with the technology and regulatory changes.
AI guidelines provide a framework for ethical and practical AI usage within the firm. They help ensure employees use AI tools responsibly, enhancing productivity without compromising professional standards or client trust. These guidelines also serve as a foundation for training staff on the appropriate use of AI, promoting consistency and transparency across the firm.
Considerations for creating AI guidelines
AI guidelines aren’t one-size-fits-all, so we won’t offer a specific list of guidelines to incorporate into your firm. However, we will provide a few considerations when crafting your standards.
Understand AI's limitations and potential biases
While powerful, AI systems aren’t infallible. They can exhibit biases based on the data they are trained on, leading to skewed results. For CPA firms, this means being aware of the potential for AI to produce biased financial analyses, recommendations, or content.
Your AI guidelines should address the process for regularly auditing AI outputs to identify and correct any biases in AI-generated reports. When creating your own AI models, use a wide range of data sources to train AI models, reducing the risk of bias.
Ensure accuracy through human oversight
AI is prone to "hallucinations," generating incorrect or nonsensical outputs. The data sets used by AI may become outdated and not reflect the latest financial and regulatory information. Using AI requires rigorous fact-checking and human oversight.
Your guidelines should address procedures for humans to review AI-generated outputs before they’re finalized.
Recognize AI's non-human nature
AI operates based on logic and data—it can’t understand context or emotions as humans do. This limitation means you should not use AI to answer ethical or emotion-driven questions.
Your AI guidelines should define acceptable AI use cases by clearly delineating tasks suitable for AI and those requiring human judgment. Educate employees about what AI can and cannot do so they have realistic expectations about its applicability to their work.
Promote transparency in AI usage
Being transparent about AI use is essential, as this builds trust with clients and stakeholders.
Inform clients when you use AI tools in their projects, explaining the benefits and limitations. Keep detailed records of how AI tools are used, including decision-making processes and data sources.
Address security concerns
Security is paramount when integrating AI into your accounting practice.
Your guidelines should address security and advise employees never to input customer or proprietary business information into public AI systems or those without adequate safeguards to protect the data.
Creating AI guidelines is crucial to leveraging AI's potential while maintaining ethical standards and client trust. By understanding AI's limitations, ensuring rigorous oversight, and promoting transparency and security, you can effectively navigate the complexities of integrating AI into your firm’s processes. Your guidelines will provide a solid foundation for adapting to new challenges and opportunities as the technology and regulatory environment evolves.
Could your firm benefit from getting firm management and IT leaders in alignment?
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Erin Shively, IT Coordinator at Boomer Consulting, Inc., is excited to grow the company’s existing tech stack with new and emerging technologies. Her role includes troubleshooting technology issues, tracking and creating internal processes, and handling on-site tech set up for events at the Accounting Innovation Center.
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