Page 13 - The Corporate Report Pack

‘Digital’ – what does it really mean for business?
As an example, think of the journey a ‘typical’ client such as Nike went through in the past ve decades: In 1964, Nike started as a Japanese distributer of running shoes in Oregon in the US, from where it developed into a sports goods manufacturing company In the eighties, Nike became a brand, and now Wikipedia describes the company as follows: ‘Nike, Inc [...] is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services’
In the digital world, they engage the running community globally on the Nike+ platform through eight digital channels, some of which include challenging others, running with a virtual coach, mapping and tracking runs ey analyse the data created by the runners and steer their company strategy through this Just imagine how their strategy must have evolved, not to mention their marketing, advertising, operations, supply chain and employee skills, to have arrived where they are now Imagine, also, how a professional services rm would have had to evolve with Nike+ to be able to give them the best assurance, tax, deals and consulting advice through all of their transformations up until where they are with their business strategy today
In order to stay relevant in the digital age, auditors as well as tax, deals and other consultants in the professional services industry will have to develop a rm grasp and understanding of the functionality and trends in both current and future digital technology ey will need to understand and experiment with digital tools and platforms until they’ve become familiar enough with it to integrate it in a meaningful way with their professional expertise
By now we are all at least somewhat familiar with the digital world and SMAC through our personal experience on our smartphones or tablets, although many still nd themselves having to call on the younger generations to help them use a new app or get some advice on what’s out there
Arti cial intelligence and machine learning in professional services
Somewhat more daunting, but with the potential and reality of fundamentally disrupting our professions in assurance, audit and tax, is the world of machine learning (ML) and arti cial intelligence (AI), and the related systems and algorithms of pattern analysis or recognition, robotics and natural language processing ese technologies conjure up science ction-like images of machines ruling our future world, but the reality is that many of them are already being used to disrupt our professions
Most of the technologies, systems and algorithms referred to above are applied in some form or other to assist professionals in analysing data or information, provide business intelligence, act as decision support tools, or automate some aspects of analysis ose areas of our profession most likely to bene t from these technologies are those that are rule-based or algorithmic, such as in the elds of accounting and (simplistic) tax law I deliberately use the word ‘bene t’ rather than ‘threatened’, as is done in some circles that predict that professions such as accounting will disappear in the next ten years I believe the nature of a number of professions will change substantially, but with the current (lack of) sophistication of AI, humans cannot in the foreseeable future be replaced entirely in any of the knowledge economy professions
Several of the dominant digital technology companies, such as Google and IBM, have developed or acquired their own AI technology (Google Analytics and IBM Watson) and also collaborate with whole ecosystems of partners that provide toolsets for developers and professionals to experiment with, applying these algorithms to their data It is claimed that a system has already been developed using IBM Watson with the same capability as a human tax advisor with six years’ experience
Something else that is of particular interest to the nancial services industry is the development of the so-called blockchain algorithm and its application in
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