He discussed the global growth in the general mark-ups of goods sold by enterprises over the past 15 years which has been accompanied by a relatively lower level of price growth. This he argued led to sustained corporate profit rises and market capitalisation increases. An underlying reason for the markup growth has been the diminution of costs driven in part by advances in cost management techniques. However, he pointed also to the void of significant management accounting innovations over this same time frame just as organisations increased their engagement with digitalisation. Professor Bhimani noted that the transformation of the data used by enterprises in guiding action offers an opportunity for accountants to widen what they do as organisational information providers because real possibilities for the accounting profession to step up to digital shifts now exist.
Professor Bhimani discussed the stage of evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) we are currently witnessing and the ongoing trajectory from AI ‘reasoners’ to agents. AI agents sidestep data needing to be converted into information to enable analysis or to determine effective decisions prior to simply mobilising action. Machines at this stage become more adept than human decision makers across many situations. He noted that we are advancing toward artificial superintelligence that will ultimately underpin organisational activities – though commentators differ in the time horizon for this to be in play. Professor Bhimani identified a number of avenues for accounting professionals and scholars to pursue.