iscover Accounting work could be fully automated within 18 months, Microsoft AI chief predicts
TechnologyAs artificial intelligence adoption accelerates with no sign of slowing, Microsoft’s AI chief has sounded the alarm, warning that most white-collar jobs could soon be fully automated – and accountants are firmly in the spotlight.
With AI adoption surging at unprecedented speed, some of the world’s leading tech executives are raising alarms about the future of work, offering bold predictions on how the workplace could soon be transformed.
Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman has joined the chorus of tech leaders warning that major disruption for white-collar workers is imminent – and lawyers are squarely in the spotlight.
Speaking with the Financial Times, Suleyman cautioned that within just 12 to 18 months, AI could match human performance in most professional roles, putting the daily tasks of lawyers, accountants, and managers at risk of full automation.
“I think that we’re going to have a human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks,” Suleyman said.
“So white-collar work, where you’re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person – most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”
This trend is already visible in software engineering, with Suleyman highlighting how employees are increasingly relying on “AI-assisted coding for the vast majority of their code production” – a transformation that, he says, has taken place in just the past six months.
Suleyman’s striking prediction for the future of white-collar industries, including law, comes amid widespread concern over how rapidly evolving AI could reshape sectors that have long depended on human expertise.
The comments follow Accountants Daily’s recent reporting on the uptake of AI by accounting practitioners nationwide, including an increasing level of confidence in AI use across the board.
An overwhelming majority of accountants also reject the idea of replacing workers with AI, with an industry body having warned that doing so would undermine long-term competitiveness. This said, many Australian workers believe that the accounting sector will benefit from AI’s impact on entry-level roles.
