Second Minister for Finance and National Development Indranee Rajah speaking during ISCA’s annual dinner on July 3.
ST PHOTO: ARRIFIN JAMAR
Sarah Koh
SINGAPORE – Over the next three years, 60,000 professionals in accounting and finance will learn to use artificial intelligence tools to do everything from automating fraud detection to pulling insights from raw financial data for audits.
They will be among the first group of non-tech professionals to be trained under a national push to get 100,000 workers confident in using AI in their own line of work by 2029.
The AIxAccountancy programme, which will be free for its target trainees, will be delivered in two phases.
Participants will first build their foundations with popular AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot, said the Infocomm Media Development Authority and Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) in a statement on July 3.
The national accountancy body is one of several professional bodies partnering IMDA to develop AI fluency courses underthe National AI Impact Programme, first announced in March with the 100,000 AI-fluent workers target.
Subsequently, learners will be taught how to apply AI in their specific roles in accounting, finance, auditing, taxation and other related disciplines. It includes building AI tools for fraud detection and tax computation, and developing customised accounting chatbots.
Course participants will also be taught to use AI for budgeting, forecasting and business analysis.
The programme is crucial to help accountants keep up with the changes in the AI space happening at breakneck pace, said Second Minister for Finance and National Development Indranee Rajah during ISCA’s annual dinner on July 3.
“The initiative will enable professionals to move beyond routine work and focus on tasks requiring judgment, analysis and decision-making, where the true value of the accountancy profession lies,” said Indranee, who is also the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.
She added that the online course is also conveniently designed to fit the busy schedule of working professionals, taking into account their work and personal commitments.
A list of courses under the SkillsFuture Green Workplace programme also went live on July 3 to boost the pool of professionals with sustainability skills, starting with sustainability reporting, said Indranee.
Fees for the courses, jointly curated by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority and Skills and Workforce Development Agency, will be subsidised by up to 90 per cent.
Sustainability reporting refers to the practice of disclosing an organisation’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and impacts.
“Across the region, there are growing expectations from investors, regulators and supply chain partners to strengthen the quality and credibility of sustainability reporting practices,” said Indranee, adding that a “strong pool” of professionals is needed to meet this demand.
Upon completion of the AIxAccountancy course, learners will receive a certificate and a digital badge that serves as a verifiable, tamper-proof record of AI proficiency to employers, said ISCA and IMDA. It can be shared on professional platforms such as LinkedIn.
After that, accounting professionals who are in or plan to go into management roles can enrol in modules that will teach them to lead responsible adoption of AI and firm-wide AI transformation.
“Prior to its launch, more than 20,000 individuals across the public and private sectors, including tertiary students, had already expressed interest in AIxAccountancy, reflecting strong demand to build AI capabilities,” said IMDA and ISCA in their statement.
The course is free for Singaporeans and permanent residents working in accounting and finance, ISCA members, and students of local institutes of higher learning.
Among those who are interested are 250 employees of professional services firm PKF-CAP. They already use tools like Microsoft’s Copilot Cowork agent for administrative tasks like drafting client e-mails autonomously.
The agent is also used to crunch numbers from clients’ financial statements to generate reports to point out unusual trends in lieu of mergers and acquisitions, said managing director Lee Eng Kian.
“With lots of data, sometimes these tasks can take time and we might lose focus,” said Lee, adding that the complexity increases as the number of statements for one audit grows.
With the programme, the company hopes that its workers can harness AI agents to carry out tasks autonomously without the need for constant prompting and instructions, said Lee.
AI/artificial intelligence
Living with AI
Accounting
Financial services
