A senior SMSF stakeholder has predicted the pace at which technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) is developing will see advice and accounting practices likely have to commit to a moment where a full operational reset is undertaken.
“We’re going to continue to see development and change in technology in our industry, and in any industry, against the way in which we’re adopting [technological] practices within our organisations. So you either have to move with the times or there will be points in time where you’re going to have to actually look at an organisational reset,” Smarter SMSF chief executive and co-founder Aaron Dunn told delegates at the SMSF 2030 event hosted by Saul SMSF last Thursday in Sydney.
Dunn pointed out the accounting sector had already experienced this in recent years.
“The accountants in the room [will know] there was some point in time in your business when [you came to the realisation you would] no longer put any more money into desktop software,” he said.
“That was a reset moment in your organisation where you needed to fundamentally change what you did and we’re going to be faced with these challenges again and again and again because of the fact that organisations and people don’t like change as much as how change is driven through advancements in technology.”
According to Dunn, there are identifiable stages practices will follow when adopting and implementing new forms of technology like AI.
“[The first] is foundational – there is a use case within an organisation [to decide to take advantage of technology, such as asking] why would we [implement a particular technological element],” he explained.
“[Next will be to build] it into our strategy; looking at the infrastructure and the way in which we might [make it operational].
“[Then determining whether] it can provide any competitive advantage at the moment and, off the back of that, then what does it mean in terms of leadership.”
