In November 2024, the Hong Kong Institute of CPAs held its 2024 IT Conference, with a focus the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the accounting industry.
The speakers at the event presented compelling arguments for the use of new technologies, including AI, within the accounting profession and helped to balance this message with approaches for risk mitigation. Opening the conference, Roy Leung, President of the Institute at the time, emphasized the need to embrace technological adoption and recounted his own personal experience of change from stuffing bank letters in envelopes to seeing the use of digital confirmations. Training and the need to ensure that future accountants are equipped with the right skills was a significant theme of the President’s opening remarks.
The Guest of Honour, Donald Mak, Deputy Commissioner (Data Governance), Digital Policy Office, at the Hong Kong government, provided insight into the government’s actions to support the use of new technologies and emphasized the importance of Hong Kong in bridging data from the Mainland and international sources. He also discussed Cyberport’s AI Supercomputing Centre which officially began operations in December 2024 and is designed to help promote the development of AI in Hong Kong and provide cutting edge tools for the future.
With AI models ever developing, Joyce Liu, Acting Senior Legal Counsel (Global Affairs and Research), Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), opened the keynote speeches with a session on the vital importance of AI governance and privacy. Liu explained the need for robust governance systems to ensure that AI is developed safely and with the proper emphasis on data security. She discussed in detail the PCPD’s AI: Model Personal Data Protection Framework, which provides guidance to organizations in Hong Kong that are looking to deploy AI and must ensure they are protecting personal data privacy. Liu also described the importance of ensuring effective communication and engagement with stakeholders to help develop trust and to make sure that those who may be affected by the outcomes of AI models are well informed.
Continuing the theme of governance and discussing their own AI implementation journey in the second keynote speech was Jacqueline Chan, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, DBS Bank Hong Kong. Chan described how financial services are one of the top industries driving AI development and that Hong Kong has significant potential for improving productivity growth through the deployment of AI tools. She also discussed specific areas and tools where DBS are exploring the potential of AI namely in customer fraud detection which helps to protect customers and in assessing the creditworthiness of individuals and companies. Emphasizing the most common concerns that people have around AI, Chan spoke on the common concerns of ethics, trust, privacy and security that are particularly important for financial services and accountants given the volume of sensitive personal and financial information that is processed.
The third presentation from Sarah Butler, Head of Product, Caseware APAC & Global Solutions Lead for GenAI Development, discussed trends in the use of AI in auditing specifically. In a recent poll of their user base, over 60 percent of respondents stated that they already had or planned to adopt AI in some element of their practice though noted that 21 percent still had no plans to make use of AI. Given the rise of Generative AI (GenAI), documentation generation was among the most popular use of AI, with statistical analysis also common. Butler highlighted the importance of reducing bias in training data to avoid biased outcomes. She advised that firms should ensure that they are transparent with clients about their usage of AI, that models are explainable and that they ensure they remain appropriately sceptical of outputs and the extent to which they can be directly relied upon.
The final session was a panel discussion that included Dr. Toa Charm, Advisor to Wizpresso, Calvin Lui, Co-founder of Pintar Investments Group, Roger Luo, Co-founder of ProFound Tech, Allan Kong, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of SmartLedgers Limited and Tommy Lui, Chief Business Officer, GPTBots.ai. The panel highlighted the necessity for specialized AI tools for accountants, given the profession’s specific expertise. They emphasized that AGI tools do not have the precision needed for intricate financial work. The discussion also included other AI applications like document verification and client due diligence.
Vincent Chan and Victor Tan, Co-convenors of the ICTIG Organizing Committee, concluded the conference by urging accountants to embrace change and new technologies to revolutionize accounting practices.
The archived conference is now available for enrolment here.
