“AI won't replace humans, but humans with AI will replace humans without AI – at least in the short-to-medium term,” says Senior Manager for GenAI at PwC New Zealand, Kayur Patel, who delivered the opening address at this week’s Auckland Region Accounting Conference (ARA) hosted by the School of Applied Business at Unitec.

Kayur’s address to more than 80 participants including teaching staff and industry professionals, looked at the risks and benefits of GenAI, its impact on accounting and finance professionals as well as the skills required for future accountants. 

He also cited some tangible use cases that PwC is currently implementing in client finance teams, including everyday use cases that can save practitioners up to an hour a day, through to automation for larger workflows such as accounts payable, monthly or board reporting, technical accounting and tax research.

Kayur stressed the need for tertiary institutions to adapt quickly in the way they teach their students. 

“I felt it was important to show students and teaching staff that GenAI isn’t just theory – it has practical and applied uses in our field which can already make a real difference to efficiency and productivity,” he says. 

The annual symposium brings together representatives from Massey University, University of Auckland, MIT, Unitec and AUT. It is designed to explore cutting-edge trends in contemporary accounting research. 

At this year’s event, five groups of students presented their research papers on a range of applied business topics, with University of Auckland student Hanyi Xu winning the Best Paper Award for her paper on Sustainability Assurance Quality Influences and Consequences. The first prize of $500 was sponsored by Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) Australia.

The day-long symposium also featured a panel discussion on the impact of AI on accounting, with panellists including Associate Professor Liz Rainsbury (Unitec), Professor David Hays (University of Auckland), Anne Liu (CPA), Samuel Chen (Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand), Jerry Ieremia (Unitec Accounting alumnus), and Willie Johnston (Johnston and Associates Chartered Accountants Limited). 

The session was facilitated by Unitec senior lecturer and conference chair, Dr James Prescott. 

“As we enter the third decade of staging this event, there’s a real need to maintain it as a forum for showcasing accounting research, particularly for our emerging scholars and researchers,” says Dr Prescott.  

“I’m very proud of our School of Applied Business conference team for the mahi they did to bring such a timely topic to the fore and wish the next tertiary host the very best for the 2025 ARA conference.”

The Auckland regional event has been running for the past 21 years