Abstract This study focuses on investigating the effects of AI on the accounting profession and providing possible solutions to its negative effects from the prisms of education and training. Four research questions guided the review. They aimed to find out how AI affects the performance of accounting professionals, investigate whether there have there been changes in employee attitudes toward AI, explore factors that could influence changes in the attitudes of accounting professionals towards AI and understand the attitudes of accounting professionals towards AI. Data was collected using interviews. The respondents were teachers and accounting professionals. Their views suggested that there was a low level of awareness about AI in the accounting profession. They also provided a mixed review about the effects of Ai on the accounting sector. However, it was established that low-levels accounting jobs are most vulnerable to job losses. Introduction Background Many companies around the world are redesigning their business processes to maximise their operational efficiencies (Kirschner & Stoyanov 2018). The accounting industry is one of the key tenets of corporate operations that are experiencing such changes (Cortese & Walton 2018). Their effects are heightened by the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI), which has been linked to high levels of productivity, accuracy and low operating costs (Fox 2018). Fox (2018) defines AI as the ability to help machines think, almost as a human being does. This type of technology equips machines or computers to make predictions about operational issues and adjust them to boost performance (Kirschner & Stoyanov 2018). Similarly, they can adapt to their environments the same way as human biology equips people to do the same (Carriço, 2018). Professions that require the meticulous implementation of tasks are deemed the biggest beneficiaries of AI because it adds another layer of efficiency to their tasks (Birtchnell 2018). This outcome often occurs by extending a computer’s normal input and output processes to increase productivity (Felzmann, Villaronga, Lutz & Tamò-Larrieux 2019). Based on a general review of industry reports, AI is increasingly being used to conduct administrative duties and present accounting results in business through various structural changes (Fox 2018). Some common accounting tasks linked with AI include quarterly close procedures, procurement planning, developing accounts payables, answering audit queries and expense management (Ferri, Lusiani & Pareschi 2018). Kirschner and Stoyanov (2018) support the above assertion by saying that most bookkeeping tasks, which are traditionally associated with accounting, are already being partially done through AI. For example, the technology is already being used to compute accounts payables and receivables (Geiger 2017). Relative to this discussion, observers have reported that some accounting firms have already integrated AI tasks to initiate payments and match purchase orders (Kirschner & Stoyanov 2018). Some data entry procedures are also being undertaken using AI (Geiger 2017). The same outcome is true for data categorisation processes. For example, some global accounting firms, such as Deloitte,