Digital Financial Reporting

The document; Closing the Skills Gap: Specifics as to what professional accountants need to learn to survive and thrive in the digital age of accounting, reporting, and auditing; is my best attempt at summarizing information which I wish I would have known 20 years ago when I started fiddling around with what became XBRL.

I tried to provide the least amount of what I would consider to be a complete set of basic information a professional accountant would need to correctly understand "the artificial intelligence revolution".  Here is the executive summary:

• Changes that will be brought about by what is being called "the artificial intelligence revolution" among other terms will unquestionably be significant.  It is not useful to overstate or understate the impact.
• A gap exists between what professional accountants understand today and what they need to understand to survive and thrive in the digital age of accounting, reporting, and auditing.
• This gap in understanding capabilities of technologies such as artificial intelligence makes it difficult for professional accountants to grasp the changes that are not only inevitable but are imminent.
• Undergraduate and graduate college curriculums need to be updated for these changes.  Continuing professional education offered likewise needs to be updated.
• The "learn to code" hysteria is not the right answer.  Having professional accountants become more proficient with information technology or computer skills is likewise not the right answer for most professional accountants.
• Computers work per the rules of mathematics.  Mathematics works per the rules of logic.  The primary gap that needs to be filled is for professional accountants to gain a sound understanding of how computers actually work and the skills necessary to leverage these very useful tools of the digital age of accounting, reporting, and auditing appropriately. Understanding the basics of logic is the key to prospering in the digital age.
• Business logic can be used by professional accountants and other business professionals who have little or no formal training in logic.  A sound understanding of business logic enables effective communications with information technology professionals.
• The artificial intelligence revolution will not only impact accounting professionals, rather all business professionals will be impacted.  Closing this knowledge gap sooner rather than later can help position professional accountants as leaders for the digital age of accounting, reporting, and auditing.

Essentially, what professional accountants and other business professionals need to learn to do is to "think critically" about data and information. What I mean by that is that they need to be able to be consciously conscious when working with data and information.  They need to be rigorous, deliberate, and methodical.

Any comments or other feedback would be gladly accepted.