[AI Revolution](64) AI Accountant Completes Corporate Financial Analysis in 3 Minutes

AI Technology 'Wonjang Migration' for Excel Financial Data Analysis
Cost Reduction for SMEs and Venture Companies Lacking Financial Experts
ChatGPT Integration Under Development

Lee Bom (Amy Lee), CEO of IC.

Accountants and tax accountants are often mentioned as professions likely to disappear due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Since these jobs require numerical accuracy in corporate management and financial conditions, there is skepticism about whether humans can keep up with AI's processing capabilities. AI services related to accounting and taxation are emerging worldwide, causing many professionals in the field to feel anxious about an uncertain future.

In South Korea, a platform that analyzes and manages corporate financial conditions like an accountant using AI has recently appeared. It is a service of the same name created by the startup 'Aicy,' established on March 1 last year. The platform's name combines 'AI,' meaning artificial intelligence, and 'Efficiency,' reflecting the company's goal of 'maximizing corporate efficiency through AI.' Amy Lee (Eom Amy), CEO of Aicy, said, "While overseeing investor relations (IR) at a startup in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) sector, I had many opportunities to talk with financial and accounting executives who were struggling with using and managing financial information," adding, "Practitioners were burdened with repetitive Excel tasks, so we created a service to help them."

Aicy's independently developed AI technology, 'Ledger Migration,' can read corporate Excel ledger (transaction book) files based on specific rules. After the AI reads the Excel files, the robotic process automation (RPA) technology applied to the platform prepares reports like an accountant. Typically, it takes an accountant 10 to 16 hours to prepare a monthly financial analysis report, but Aicy completes this in just three minutes. The CEO explained, "We operate a rule-based AI engine that extracts data from Excel ledger files for all accounts worldwide and introduced an automated model for financial analysis and diagnosis," adding, "This allows management of key financial performance indicators (KPIs)."

Mid-sized and small businesses with sufficient resources but a desire to use time efficiently can expect optimized work processes and cost savings through Aicy's monthly financial analysis service. According to a survey by global IT solutions company Connecting Software, 39% of worldwide corporate IT spending is for integrating systems and internal financial data. Due to a lack of in-house financial experts, outsourcing costs are steadily increasing. The CEO said, "Additional time and expertise are required to process and utilize consolidated financial data according to needs," and "The costs to resolve errors and mistakes occurring during this process are also significant."

Service image of the financial management platform 'IC'. (Photo by IC)

Currently, all financial analysis and diagnostic services provided by Aicy are based on past corporate information. For startups lacking internal financial experts, there are inherent limitations in gaining unique financial insights or establishing future plans from corporate data. To address this, Aicy is developing a plan to integrate generative AI, such as the trending 'ChatGPT.' The CEO stated, "We will offer educational services using generative AI so that even non-financial experts can understand the meaning of each financial indicator and when to use them," adding, "We will also provide industry-specific average and ideal values for key indicators like return on equity (ROE) and debt ratio, enabling objective assessment of a company's financial status."

The CEO anticipates significant changes in corporate financial management with the development of generative AI. She noted, "In 2021, multinational IT company Oracle announced a survey showing that as financial uncertainty grows, corporate executives trust technology, including AI, more than humans," explaining, "Many agree that AI can greatly contribute to profit and loss analysis, internal controls, and invoice preparation."

Reflecting this trend, the global financial planning and analysis (FP&A) market, a core service of financial accounting systems, is recording a high annual growth rate of 16.6%. The CEO said, "Qualitative analysis that only humans can perform is essential for deriving appropriate financial insights and establishing future plans," but added, "AI technology will develop not to replace all financial accounting tasks but to maximize efficiency."