Iliana Oris Valiente, CPA, CA on the Power of AI

Iliana Oris Valiente, CPA, CA has been cloned.

Laila, her AI doppelgänger, has been trained on five years' worth of case studies. Iliana has spent hours in podcast studios reading everything from children’s stories to obituaries, and Laila has read hours of transcripts of speeches and articles that Iliana has published.

When you ask Laila a question, she will answer the way that Iliana would answer, with Iliana’s face, Iliana’s emotions, and an entire vault of personalized information.

Thanks to AI, it’s now possible for Iliana to be in two places at once!

As the Managing Director and Innovation Lead at Accenture Canada, Iliana is living and working on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence. She sees the potential, as well as the pitfalls, of AI every day.

According to research by Accenture, three-quarters of white-collar workers are going to be interfacing with some form of an AI agent throughout their day by 2026, – and this is just one of the many AI-centric innovations that are coming down the pipeline that will revolutionize the way people work.

Iliana suggests that instead of spending hours sifting through documents and case studies or recounting conversations with past clients, this could be automated – giving her more meaningful face time with her team members. But it’s more than just fact recall – it's genuine and tailor-made advice.

‘This is a big distinction with AI - people no longer want just information and data points back, they want advice.’

‘In addition to the tactical functions that CPAs currently do, there is tremendous opportunity for creative thinking and becoming better strategic advisors.’

With AI crunching the numbers and providing advice to clients, Iliana sees CPAs having more time to provide insight – the ‘so what’.

‘In addition to the tactical functions that CPAs currently do, there is tremendous opportunity for creative thinking and becoming better strategic advisors.’

In order to get more comfortable with generative AI in their professional life, Iliana also urges CPAs to use these kinds of tools in their lives outside of work, and to engage in upskilling wherever possible.

‘No one can get through their entire to-do list. It never ends. Why wouldn’t we want to be using AI to give us superpowers?’

‘No one can get through their entire to-do list. It never ends. Why wouldn’t we want to be using AI to give us superpowers?’

One of the most common misconceptions that Iliana sees when it comes to the purpose of artificial intelligence is that it is out to replace people’s jobs – rather than make people’s jobs easier.

‘People’s minds automatically go into a reductive view of things – they start to think about a cost-cutting, job-elimination, automation agenda. Meanwhile, there is a ton of value creation opportunity. There are entirely new rules that are going to be created that we haven’t even begun to contemplate.’

Iliana gives an example of a team member who wanted to explore some career development – they were asked to explore every aspect of their job that could be automated with generative AI tools, and to then teach those functions to her team members to get them up to speed. This resulted in a much higher productivity rate for her entire team and more time available for her to further hone her professional skills.

‘This wasn't a cost reduction play. This wasn't a headcount optimization play. This was a value creation play.’

With opportunity comes responsibility. And while these changes and advancements are undeniably exciting, there is still a lot of work to be done before it can be fully embraced. Only around 5-10 percent of organizations are fully optimized from a data and cloud perspective, and even fewer understand how to use AI ethically. But amidst this uncertainty, Iliana sees an opportunity for CPAs.

‘Most organizations are totally inadequately prepared for AI – who is your responsible AI officer? What are your policies? Responsible AI needs to be baked in - it’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. There is an opportunity here for CPAs who are often relied upon to be stewards of responsibility.’

This opportunity was the focus of CPA Ontario’s recent white paper, Trust in New Frontiers: Putting AI Governance into Practice. The need for governance of the evolving AI landscape is undeniable, and CPAs are well-equipped to lead the change.