Anik Seth, CPA, CMA on AI, Entrepreneurship and Being Named a CPA Ontario Emerging Leader
Anik’s journey to entrepreneurship in artificial intelligence started in, of all places, fast food.
Working at his family’s fast-food franchise, Anik noticed how the power of AI could create efficiencies and improve operations. Fast forward to today and Anik, one of CPA Ontario’s 2023 Emerging Leaders, is the founder and CEO of AI start-up HU/EX Labs, a cutting-edge voice recognition AI company with clients in hospitality and retail.
With HU/EX Labs, Anik and his team focus on three pillars: analytics, augmentation and automation, leveraging natural language processing and voice recognition technology to help address the needs of his customers.
As a tech entrepreneur and as a CPA, one of the most common questions Anik gets asked is how AI and innovation will shape the CPA profession in the years to come.
According to Anik, artificial intelligence will eliminate the need for human intervention in some processes, allowing the role of the CPA to evolve with a greater focus on analysis and strategy.
‘Right now, AI systems are designed to augment human capabilities, assisting with day-to-day operations. By automating routine tasks, CPAs can redirect their focus toward enriching data and applying it to more meaningful and impactful business insights.’
One of the biggest opportunities Anik sees for CPAs is in the emerging field of prompt engineering. With generative AI, the quality of output is directly correlated with the quality of the input. It’s all about learning how to ask the right questions.
‘We have to be privy to understanding that if an AI system is giving a recommendation, you must question how that AI system was trained. In this sense, I could see the audit profession morphing towards auditing these systems. The more we use these, the more accountability there needs to be.’
This is an essential point for CPAs, given that the obligations laid out in the CPA Code of Professional Conduct still apply to AI. The same obligations for CPAs that govern the use of any software apply to the use of artificial intelligence, as do the same accountabilities.
As noted in CPA Ontario’s white paper Trust in New Frontiers: Putting AI Governance into Practice, CPAs’ Code of Professional Conduct is a valuable moral compass as AI adoption is happening faster than risk assessment frameworks can evolve. A strong ethical code can provide a reliable foundation as teams develop trustworthy AI solutions.
'At some point in time, there is going to be an element of public disclosure – similar to the changes we are seeing with sustainability and ESG reporting. From an audit perspective, I could actually see it enriching the profession or adding more value to it.'
'Becoming an Emerging Leader has motivated me more to inspire others to pursue this designation.'
Anik says that being named an Emerging Leader for his work in AI and the start-up economy was a great honour, motivating him to become an even greater champion for the designation.
'It’s an amazing profession – becoming an Emerging Leader has motivated me more to inspire others to hopefully pursue this designation.'
And for those that do decide to pursue the designation, explore the world of AI, or become an entrepreneur – or all three – Anik offers this advice.
‘Obviously accounting and financial expertise remains central to the CPA profession, but its nature will evolve in the age of AI. Even as AI handles more tasks, CPAs must ensure they’re adding value through deeper analysis and data-driven improvements.’
‘I think with any start up, it always goes back to one thing – finding product market fit.’
‘Problem solving is going to be even more fundamental – we are soon going to be, if not already, living in a world where we are so inundated with information, being able to sift through it will be a very useful skill going forward. How do you piece the puzzle together?’
Nominations for 2024 Emerging Leaders are now being accepted. Learn more about the nomination process.
CPA Ontario’s AI Conference: Assessing the Rise and Risk takes place on September 26 – register here.