New technologies are transforming our profession, and theyre also transforming the skills well need to stave off extinction.

In a paper titled The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerisation? University of Oxford researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne tried to gauge the odds that certain occupations will be completely automated within the next 20 years. Among their predictions:

In fact, only seven occupationscargo and freight agents, watch repairers, insurance underwriters, mathematical technicians, hand sewers, title examiners, and telemarketersfared worse in the study than tax preparers.

The researchers admit that these estimates are rough and likely to be wrong, writes National Public Radios Quoctrung Bui. But consider this a snapshot of what some smart people think the future might look like. If it says your job will likely be replaced by a machine, youve been warned.

Other studies offer similar predictions:

One way or anothercomplete automation or partialour jobs are about to change. This type of disruption is coming. In one notable example, in fact, it has already arrived.

Perhaps the biggest disruption bearing down on the CPA profession is coming from IBM Watson, a cognitive learning system that is capable of answering questions asked in natural language. From health care and education to law and finance to food preparation and satellite imagery, Watson is redefining how work gets done in stunning ways.

Heres what:

This stuff isnt science fiction anymore. Its here and its impacting our profession as we speak.

How will CPAs react? Will they scramble to keep up, as usual? Or will they work to position themselves to move beyond that disruption and create future-focused value for their clients?

If theyre smart, theyll do the latterand that means learning the new skills theyll need to remain relevant in an age of automation.

Numerous studies conducted over the past several years are nearly unanimous: Going forward, CPAs must become proficient at skills that have little to do with the professions traditional data-driven core. These skills include the following:

The most important skill of all, though, might also be the most ambiguous. Its anticipationthe ability to identify future trends early and position your organization and your clients to take advantage of those trends before they arrive. Renowned futurist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel Burrus calls it the key missing competency in business today.

He might be right. A 2014 report from The Sleeter Group found that the most often-cited reason why small and midsized businesses leave their CPA firms is because those firms provide reactive advice instead of proactive services. In essence, clients say they leave because their CPAs arent future-ready enough.

It seems the age of automation has also given birth to the age of anticipation. The good news is this: Were starting to see more and more resources being developed specifically to deliver these types of competencies for accounting and finance professionals.

One is Burruss own Anticipatory Organization. The Business Learning Institute worked with Burrus to create a version of his Anticipatory Organization learning platform specifically for accounting and finance professionals. Thats available now and is becoming extremely popular among CPAs throughout the country.

Another is IBMs Big Data University. Its an online curriculum designed to help accounting and finance professionals learn key skills in artificial intelligence, big data, and cognitive computingskills that will be huge differentiators going forward, and will help CPAs play a bigger role in guiding digital transformation within their organizations. The Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute have entered into an exclusive partnership with IBM to deliver these skills to accounting and finance professionals throughout the world.

As this age of automation progresses, accounting and finance professionals would be wise to ask themselves a few key questions:

What can I become quite good at thats really difficult for a computer to do one day soon? Seth Godin writes. How can I become so resilient, so human and such a linchpin that shifts in technology wont be able to catch up? It was always important, but now its urgent.

Put another way, to paraphrase Fast Company Editor Robert Safian, the most important skill going forward will be the ability to learn new skills.

The learning must begin now.

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Why Lifelong Learning is Our Competitive Advantage in the Automation Age - Accountingweb.com