An analysis of the need for ES and AI in accounting education

Through a survey of the membership of the Artificial Intelligence/Expert Systems (AI/ES) section of the American Accounting Association, this study examines the opinions of a subset of accounting educators about the inclusion of ES and AI in the accounting curriculum. The majority of these educators indicated that at the undergraduate level, they supplement texbook materials with readings which discuss ES and AI systems currently in use in accounting and auditing practice, while at the graduate level they use both supplemental readings and hands-on projects. A comparison between what the respondents felt to be important topics and what is currently included in a selection of accounting information systems textbooks found the texbooks to be inadequate and somewhat misdirected. This group of accounting educators were evenly split on whether or not an ES/AI course should be a required part of 150-hour accounting programs.