The insurance industry is a multibillion-dollar industry, yet it lags far behind other industries like banking and big tech in its adaptation of automation. I experienced this first-hand as an intern at State Farm. I completed a project that was a massive data entry job and made it into a process that took clicking three buttons to finish. Although just one example, it was clear that State Farm as well as the insurance industry in general are not utilizing automation and machine learning. The adaptation of automation and machine learning will have internal and external benefits for insurance companies like increased efficiencies in business processes and increased customer satisfaction. However, to realize these external and internal benefits, companies, like State Farm, must implement an adhocratic culture where risk taking is incentivized, and companies must invest resources into their underwriting processes, rather through internal investment or an acquisition, to automate the process.

Through findings from interviews, a survey, and personally learning automation software we think automation will continue to grow in the accounting industry in the coming years. Accountants see software as something that makes them more efficient and firms are doing a good job training their employees on how to use these new software tools. Our interviewed accountants say that automation saves them time that can be used to work on other things. By learning Alteryx, an automation tool, we saw these time savings firsthand.

Through findings from interviews, a survey, and personally learning automation software we think automation will continue to grow in the accounting industry in the coming years. Accountants see software as something that makes them more efficient and firms are doing a good job training their employees on how to use these new software tools. Our interviewed accountants say that automation saves them time that can be used to work on other things. By learning Alteryx, an automation tool, we saw these time savings firsthand.