Professionals · code 2411
Accountants
Accountants plan, organize and administer accounting systems for individuals and establishments. Some occupations classified here examine and analyse the accounting and financial records of individuals and establishments to ensure accuracy and compliance with established accounting standards and procedures. Tasks include - (a) advising on, planning and installing budgetary, accounts controlling and other accounting policies and systems; (b) preparing and certifying financial statements for presentation to management, shareholders and statutory or other bodies; (c) preparing tax returns, advising on taxation problems and contesting disputed claims before tax officials; (d) preparing or reporting on profit forecasts and budgets; (e) conducting financial investigations in such matters as suspected fraud, insolvency and bankruptcy; (f) auditing accounts and bookkeeping records; (g) conducting investigations and advising management on financial aspects of productivity, stockholdings, sales, new products, etc.; (h) devising and controlling systems to determine unit cost of products and services. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Accountant - Auditor - Certified accountant - Chartered accountant - Financial controller - Insolvency trustee - Management accountant - Tax accountant Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Finance manager - 1211 - Accounting assistant - 3313 - Bookkeeper - 3313
Most of the tasks are affected. It ranks 379 of 427 for holding up against AI.
Also known as
- accountant
Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.
against AI Exposed: Gradient 3
AI could take on 51.3 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 51.3 = 48.7
That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.
out of 100
From O*NET, averaged across 3 US jobs
and cramped
finger skill 16.7 · hand skill 9.5 · cramped spaces 2.8 · averaged
Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on
Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.
estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement
What this number leaves out This job rates 14.4 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.
The tasks behind the score
The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.
The task AI could do most of scores 65, while the average is 51.3. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.
- 65
Preparing and certifying financial statements for presentation to management, shareholders and statutory or other bodies
Medium - 60
Devising and controlling a system to determine unit cost of products and services.
Medium - 56.5
Conducting investigations and advising management on financial aspects of productivity, stockholdings, sales, new products, etc.
Medium - 51.5
Preparing or reporting on profit forecasts and budgets
Medium - 46.5
Preparing tax returns, advising on taxation problems and contesting disputed claims before tax officials
Low - 46.3
Advising on, planning and installing budgetary, accounts controlling and other accounting policies and systems
Low - 43.4
Auditing accounts and bookkeeping records
Low - 41.5
Conducting financial investigations in such matters as suspected fraud, insolvency and bankruptcy
Low
8 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting
Helped, or replaced?
The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.
2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.
- AI helps you
- 73.5
- AI does it for you
- 49.5
Helping wins by 24 points.
estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2211, 2212
Compared with similar jobs
There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.5. This one is below that.
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- Nursing professionals 74.8
- Primary school teachers 73.9
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- Musicians, singers and composers 72
- Social work and counselling professio… 71.7
- Physiotherapists 71.6
- Special needs teachers 71.6
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- Generalist medical practitioners 71.3
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- Secondary education teachers 70.2
- Midwifery professionals 70.1
- Civil engineers 69.8
- Engineering professionals not elsewhe… 69.5
- Judges 68.7
- Electrical engineers 68.6
A closer look
There's a written profile for this job, with notes on what changes and what stays human.