ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

INTRODUCTION

Intelligence- the general term would mean to perform cognitive tasks that involve learning concepts,
understanding them and applying gained knowledge for the benefit of individual and/or society as a
whole. Life on Earth has evolved over a period of 13.8 billion years wiring our nervous system, developing
our hardware and software systems coding the learned intelligence of Billion Years in our DNA to arrive at
where we are today, debating on the ultimate innovation that could possibly be the most innovative
breakthrough a man could ever achieve – AI.

LIFE 3.0
So what was the journey that lead primitive nomad to a highly sophisticated intellect ? It is critical to
understand that unlike other living organisms, it is us the human species capable of pa ssing on the
information learned over a period of time to a foreseeable future.

We human beings were capable of developing languages, perceive, understand and use it to build
knowledge base that had transferred for centuries allowing us evolve into enormous capabilities.
Information contained in manuscripts, books, media provide us valuable insights allowing us to
accumulate intelligence. But is that it all? No, scientifically speaking accumulated intelligence lead us to
design our own software systems (Discoveries, Innovations, Cognitive abilities) rather than allowing it to
develop over centuries through evolution such as in the case of other living creatures. We are still in the
stages of evolution evolving through what scientists believe life stage 2.0 whereas, Life 3.0 Artificial
Intelligence aims at designing both software and necessary hardware systems to support human lives
flourish in the information era like never before.

WHAT IS AI?

The theory of creating non-biological intelligence has been in existence since 1956, when AI as a field of
computer science was established. Since then numerous scientist have given their piece of mind,
resulting in numerous debate over possibilities of AI, potential benefits and threats at large.

In 1965 British mathematician Irving Good put “Let an ultra intelligent machine be defined as a machine
that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever”. Thus, he brought forth the
idea of ‘Intelligence explosion’ concluding that the first ultra intelligent machine is the last invention that
man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.

Creation of ultra intelligent machine as put forth by Irving good meant that human life in such era would
have attained greater potentials helping civilization to flourish resulting in,

 The reduction in world conflicts that can lead to defence budget cuts
 Eradication of poverty by optimal use of available resources
 Major break-through in the area of space & technology

AI could possibly complete the most dramatic transition in the history of life on earth. For the first time
ever, our planet will be fuelled by a single power amplified by an intelligence so vast it could potentially
enable life to flourish for billions of years on earth and throughout our cosmos.

So what progress towards creating such an ultra-intelligent machine as put forth by Irving Good been
made in the past half century? From SIRI to self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing
rapidly. AI can encompass anything from Google’s search algorithms to IBM’s Watson to autonomous
weapons. We have witnessed Deep Blue (AI) beat world chess champion. But, is that it all? No, the
preconceived image of AI involves creation of robots with human-like characteristics, which in itself
involves designing smarter software, hardware systems which would undergo recursive self
improvement, triggering intelligence explosion leaving human intellect far behind.

AI could outperform
human interllect at
specific tasks
NARROW AI

Deep Blue, SIRI,

Watson
AI

AI that could
outperform human
General AI
intellect on all level
coginitive abilities.

Creation of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) may arrive during the coming century, perhaps even
during our life time, spawned by progress in AI. What will happen and what this means for us?

WHAT AI MEAN FOR CAs

The role of Auditors in the current economy could not be put forth by merely stating activities
undertaken by them. It is dynamic, immense and covers in fact every aspect of economy. Honourable
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed took similar stand stating “the CA community looks after the
economic health of the society”

CA course, designed by ICAI, in it-self covers plethora of topics installing a sound knowledge base among
both its members and students. As we live in the age of information where data and information are
captured and processed on a Real time basis, it is vital for us to stay updated of all technological
advancements in the field of information technology to deliver highly competent real time service. While,
Acquisition of technological knowledge is one part, application of knowledge in the current comple x,
dynamic environment is major challenge, which if met-out takes our profession to new heights of
intellectual decision making. Routine day to day lives of professional Chartered Account ant certified by
ICAI involves,

 Collecting data,
 Checking completeness of data acquired,
 Processing the collected data for the purpose obtaining knowledge,
 Understanding the issues at hand, developing alternative courses of action,
 Applying the best solution chosen resulting in better value added service to the client.

In all areas of Financial Reporting, Financial Planning, Computing Taxes, Compliance of Legal & Regulatory
requirements, Strategic management, Auditing and Assuring users of Financial Statements about the True
and fair view enabling them to take informed decisions.

Use of Narrow AI in our professional lives could enrich not only the services offered but also the
economic welfare of the society in general. Narrow AI can outperform human on tasks that involves
complex computations further reducing the cycle time to process the task. Software is developed in the
area of Finance, risk management, Banking, Investing services, etc, to match Human intelligence. Human
Collaborating with AI would mean easy access to data and knowledge; value added services: reduced
process time and financial enrichment of the economy.

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATTION (RPA)

RPA is the emerging form of Business Process Automation (BPA) based on AI. RPA tools allow data to be
handled in and between multiple applications, by watching the user perform task in the application’s GUI,
and then perform the automation by repeating those tasks directly in the GUI.

USER PERFORMS RPA executes in the

TASKS backend

• Viewing Email, • Records activity

• Downloading carried on by the
Invoices user
• Extracting data • Develops an action
list
• Bookkeeping
• Repeats the Tasks
by automating
interaction with
user demonstrated
GUI

Robotic – Bots that mimic human action

Process – Sequence of steps to complete a task

Automation – Automating repetitive process through recursive improvement.

IMPLEMENTATION OF RPA IN BUSINESS PROCESS

In his article “Emergence of Robotic Process Automation in Finance”, CA.Sachin Chitlange cited that RPA
technologies can automate manual finance processes, especially in a fragmented finance system. It is
important for organisation to standardise and streamline business processes before switching over from
Human to Robots. RPA implementation leads to reduced cost operation and optimises Business process
only when entity has an understanding of its Business process and standardise those process to meet
desired results. Key challenges for organisation implementing RPA would include,

 Deciding when to use and when not to use RPA

 Inorganic growth of an organisation
 Successful deployment of best-practice automation such as ERPs, Six Sigma, Cloud based
offering.
 TYPICAL RISKS IN RPA ENVIRONMENT
While technology makes our life efficient, it also opens new risks to the business environment. A typical
Robotics Process Automation (RPA) system design provisions interconnection between multiple systems
and hence also has an impact on underlying system control environment. It is essential for an
organization to build a secure BOT strategy when they move from a POC to Production environment .

RPA brings its own inherent risks as well the ones which are resultant of the business environment it
automates.

 Enhanced cyber attacks due to Internal & External application integration.

 Weak security level controls lead to manual override.
 Unauthorized access and use of RPA credentials may lead to data, security, privacy and fraud
risks.
 BOTs are often not built for intent identification; hence detection of security breach may be a
challenge.

APPLICATION OF RPA
Industries today face a large number of internal and external compliance requirements. With the
regulators adopting technology, the demand for timely and granular compliance is common. RPA provide
a unique value proposition for many such requirements. A carefully designed RPA can improve the
accuracy of records and response time. On the other hand, with 100% review of records, compliance
monitoring through RPA improves the quality of reviews and enhance stakeholder confidence. (ref-Risk
Management of BOTs-deolite)

IT PROCESS Consumer & Industrial

BANKING
MANAGEMENT Products
•Periodic Risk •Regulatory Reporting •Regulatory compliance
Assessment •Trade Surveillance for material movement
•Compliance Reporting •Credit Monitoring •Declaration of stocks
(SOX, TDS, GST) •Collateral Management and manufacturing
•System change plans to regulators
management
•Master Data
Management

CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS
We may as well look at the available AI in the fields of Audit, Finance, Tax, Financial Reporting, Risk
Management etc that enhances ease at which information processing system process raw data into
processed information helping professional in their work.

SPREADSHEET AUTOMATION
 OVERVIEW
Excel is a powerful, efficient and user-friendly application for data storing, calculating, organizing and
report generation purposes. No doubt this application became very popular from small-scale industry to
corporate organizations as there is a continuous need to access, analyze, retrieve, calculate, manipulate
and report real-time data on a daily basis.
  ISSUES FACED
However, sometimes integrating excel with other application becomes tedious. Even for many repetitive
tasks like Data retrieval, extraction, migration, Import and Export, etc. automation is required to avoid
this repetitiveness in any activities.

 SOULTION
Excel automation as a tool of RPA has become very simple. It executes at backend without any software.
It is a flexible tool which works with any spreadsheet format with different header styles and positions of
columns.

 BENEFITS
 High Speed Processing
 Eliminates the work of opening and closing a software
 Increased Multi-tasking
 Accept files in any spreadsheet format

 DAILY APPLICATION
GSTR 2 & GSTR 2A reconciliation, setting matching criteria between two excel spreadsheet
and automating execution.
Preparation of Bank Reconciliation Statement.
Identification of odd entries & allows deeper investigation of recording of transaction
while indulging in Forensic Audits.
Performing data analytics, understanding past trends and forecasting future course of
action.

BACK OFFICE AUTOMATION

 OVERVIEW
Back office operations have traditionally been paper-intensive and labour-intensive. While front office
automation is critical to customer experience, it is equally important to have highly efficient back office
operations.

 ISSUE FACED
Back office function involves high human intervention and may lead to possibilities of fraud and error. It
has become of a strategic imperative to automate back-end office function for better flow of work and
creating market value for the products and services offered.

 SOLUTION
Robotic process automation can automate all your back office operations to offer reduced processing
cycle times, improved visibility into athe status of requests for front office and customers,
standardization of processes across regions, and improved quality of service to customers. RPA has
automated various Back office processes like employee contracts, supplier management, inventory
management, Accounting & finance functions, budgetary policies etc,

 DAILY APPLICATION
o RPA works interact with multiple application and present information in the form of
charts, dashboards etc,
o Data Migration & Entry can be easily automated from excel to any other application
using RPA tools.
 o RPA tools such as Uipath, Blue prism can used to automate E-mail querying function
thereby segregate of thousands of e-mails that an organisation receive each day into
common and function specific.
o
RPA TOOLS IN THE MARKET
Following RPA tools are available in the market which offers cognitive or intelligent automation bots that
augment self learning skills with advanced technologies to handle unstructured information and make
decisions based on complex, unstructured input.

1. Blue prism
2. Uipath
3. Automation Anywhere
4. Kofax
5. Jidoka

Any RPA tool listed above must be selected for application after understanding the necessity of the
organization. The selected RPA tool must offer,

a) Technology
b) Quick deployment
c) Scalability
d) Security
e) Maintenance & Support
f) Ease of use & control
g) Total Cost of ownership

We cannot scale the impact of AI on human society as some are of the opinion that Superhuman-AI will
result in ultimate end of human species. It is only 50% probability that scientist believes that human
intelligence can create such Superhuman-AI.

What 100% probability is that with the support of RPA tools, BOTs, and narrow AI, human can put to
optimal level of utilisation of all resources at our our hand thereby achieve technological boom
witnessing a never before seen world. I, for one, personally had found it fun, enthusiastic and fantasised
to present a paper on AI and come to an understanding that at any rate AI is coming.