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6. RESEARCH ISSUESWhat are the impacts of accounting expert systems on tasks, users, and organizations? Additional impact studies are needed, particularly in accounting subdomains in which expert system use has rapidly advanced in the last 5 years, such as taxation and management accounting. Such research is important to accounting organizations, developers, and users. Organizations need to know whether the strategic decision to implement expert systems actually produced the desired results. Developers need to know what impacts a system has caused so that information can be used to alter or improve future development projects. Users are traditionally uncomfortable with technological change. Therefore, a better understanding of how expert systems impact users will provide reassurance to users about the realities of expert systems and may indeed dispel potential anxiety and future dissatisfaction. What explanation facilities are needed to maximize the usefulness of a particular expert system? The explanation element of expert systems is particularly important when use of the expert system is expected to have an impact on the development of expertise by users. Studies of various types of explanation will not only help identify the optimal explanation interface for a particular type of system, but will also illustrate how alternative explanation facilities may impact user performance and perceptions. Few studies exist of explanation of accounting knowledge. Accounting tasks, including financial accounting, taxation, and auditing, are highly complex tasks that require deep knowledge of principles, regulations, and laws for which explanation is problematic. What is the role of expert systems in reengineering accounting tasks? Business process reengineering involves the use of modern information technologies to overhaul business processes for significant improvements in performance. Radical redesign of some processes is needed, particularly, for example, in the volatile legal environment of auditing. A reengineering of the audit process is needed to keep up with the legally and technologically transforming audit environment. The concepts of expert systems and business process reengineering are not new. However, the assertion that expert systems can be, in fact, have been used to transform audit processes as part of an overall audit process engineering activity, should be investigated. Rich case studies of such development could also provide useful insights for other accounting subdomains. How can conflict and ambiguity of accounting knowledge be resolved? Some relevant research issues are particularly difficult, particularly in taxation and other areas that not only have complex and sometimes ambiguous elements, but also may frequently change. Research must address methods for resolving conflicts and ambiguity in tax laws and regulations for inclusion in a knowledge base. In addition, maintenance of such systems must necessarily include plans for frequent updates to the knowledge base, which may be characterized by a high level of complexity. Obstacles? One of the obstacles to research on expert systems in accounting is the proprietary nature of many expert systems, particularly those used by public accounting firms. Gaining complete information about such projects is unlikely. 7. FUTURE TRENDS AND SUMMARYIn the future, expert systems will tend to be more integrated with traditional information systems and technologies and less likely to be stand-alone systems. Accordingly, expert systems in accounting will slowly gain a more important, but less obvious role. An expert auditing planning system will become just another element of a broader audit support system that has both expert elements and traditional audit task elements, such as modules for statistical sampling and other common audit tests. In taxation, this integration will result in fewer isolated expert systems that address very specific tax issues, and broader intelligent tax information systems that perform a broader, well-rounded tax planning task. Accounting expert systems will become more modular as they become more integrated in order to facilitate maintenance and update of knowledge bases. Particularly in taxation, such integration must be coupled with modularity, because of the rate of change in the laws, knowledge and facts that are needed to solve particular tax problems. Another important trend involves the legal standing given to accounting expert systems. In auditing, for example, litigation has skyrocketed. As more audit firms utilize expert systems, legal issues will move to the forefront. The future will show us whether organizations will be able to use their expert systems as part of the documentation in defense of audit opinions. Furthermore, increasing pressures on accounting firms and corporate accounting departments to show improved cost-benefit ratios for their services will perpetuate the need for on-going expert systems development. Accounting and auditing information-centered services will be expected to be delivered with increasingly more effectiveness and decreased costs, which can be facilitated through the strategic use of advanced technologies.
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