Impact of technology in financial reporting: The case of Amazon Go

• Author: Nida Türegün
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22394
• Date: 01 July 2019
• Published date: 01 July 2019

COLUMNS

Trends in Fintech

Impact of technology in financial reporting: The case

of Amazon Go

Nida Türegün

School of Applied Sciences, Ozyegin

University, Istanbul, Turkey

Correspondence

Nida Türegün, School of Applied Sciences,

Ozyegin University, Nis¸antepe Mah. Orman

Sok. 34794 Çekmeköy Istanbul, Turkey.

Email: nida.turegun@ozyegin.edu.tr

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21st century, there is no doubt that humanity has made

a huge step forward in the field of robotics. In the next 20 years, financial reporting

will see a stronger change thanks to machine learning, artificial intelligence, block

chain, and big data usage. With the convergence of artificial intelligence and block

chain, it is now clear that in the near future the work of the accounting profession

will be supported by automation. Thus, the aim of the study to introduce the effects

of technological changes and transformations on the future of financial reporting.

The study first introduces technological tools and provides an overview of the

advantages and threats of technological changes to financial reporting. Then, the

study provides a case of Amazon Go to display the transformation of financial

reporting with the technological changes.

KEYWORDS

accounting, Amazon Go, artificial intelligence, financial reporting, technological changes

JEL CLASSIFICATION

M41; M10; O33

1|INTRODUCTION

In this day and age, the effects of technology are clearly felt

on all professions. Technological developments have made

the processes of professions more effective and simpler. In

the next 20 years, the accounting profession will go through

radical changes; it will become a very different profession

than we see today. The last 20 years of the technology have

brought many improvements in the service capabilities and

efficiency of the accounting profession. Professionals work

in a very different way compared to 20 years ago. Document

management systems that emerged in the late 90s for the

accounting profession; particularly FileCabinet CS and later

GoFileRoom; made possible to make transactions without

the use of paper (Baron, 2017). In 2001, personal customer

portals were introduced by Thomson Reuters (Thomson,

2001). Due to these portals, customers can be provided with

7 days and 24 hr service, much better communication and

cooperation, regardless of location. Internet, telephone, and

social media have had a great impact on how companies

work today.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, there is no doubt

that humanity has made a huge step forward in the field of

robotics. Although modern robots today adequately simulate

human movements and actions, the next task facing special-

ists is to train robots to think independently and respond to

changing conditions (Kopec & Lucci, 2015). Experts in the

field of artificial intelligence promise to give the machine

the ability to think analytically through advances in com-

puter science, robotics, and mathematics (Barjatya, 2004).

Although until now accountants have not been able to

fully realize the potential of artificial intelligence, this technol-

ogy can have a significant impact on accounting profession in

the coming years. Artificial intelligence technologies open up

Received: 24 April 2019 Accepted: 7 May 2019

DOI: 10.1002/jcaf.22394

90 © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Corp Acct Fin. 2019;30:90–95.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcaf