We all know that finance, like many other industries, is facing huge disruption due to technology changes. A year or two ago people feared that robots will start doing audits in future … Well, that future is today – it’s already happening.
As with all the other industrial revolutions, there will be job losses, but many more jobs will be created – even jobs we never heard of before. At the recent CA(SA) of the future conferences the speakers all discussed the opportunities that are being created because of technology. Because of this, this mundane, repetative tasks will be automated, leaving you to add value by analysing the data and making recommendations. Tramayne Monaghan, this month’s cover profile, was also a speaker at the conference, and you can read about his interesting career journey on page 8. He said that Elon Musk believed the only job that will remain in 20 years is coding AI. He says that as CAs(SA) you need to look at his environment and accept that some of your jobs may also disappear but that you should think about how you can tap into this new world and where to add value.
He believes that the death of any profession which fails to adapt to the current exponential rate of change is inevitable – but that this also
provides an opportunity. He says: ‘Our intellect positions us as custodians of our own profession. We have the ability to remain at the forefront of all the transformation that is taking place in our field. It all comes down to talking to clients and taking the time to understand them and their needs because, human emotion is the one area where robots simply cannot compete. If we can do this, CAs will thrive and the machines will do all the bean counting for us. The key is to add value where we can.’
This also ties in with the new competency framework and updated CPD policy that is SAICA launching to ensure our members stay relevant in the future.
We live in a VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. And specific factors that impact the future world of work are:
• The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the future of work
• The exponential rate of change – especially with technology
• Significant changes in the world around us (political, environmental, regulatory)
• Different skill sets needed by employers
In order to stay relevant, we need to be able to adapt and upskill ourselves. As Jonas Prising says: ‘In an environment where new skills emerge as fast as others become extinct, employability is less about what you already know and more about your capacity to learn.’
Read more about the changes on https://future.saica.co.za/CPD
Gerinda Engelbrecht
Editor
