Comment by snowwrestler

Some companies may have only one Brenda, but what really makes accounting work is multiple Brendas. In the case of my employer, we have a pretty small finance dept but we pay a big firm to come in once a year to check the books. “Brenda as a service.” (BaaS)

Brendas actually aren’t totally perfect so the tools between Brendas need to deterministically store and show their work so they can reliably check each other. If the tool itself has a Brenda baked into it—even if it’s a very good Brenda simulation!—it seems like a company could run the risk of losing that deterministic basis for double-checking. And therefore lose track of their accounting reality.

Some people will for sure over-trust the AI in the spreadsheet and make some dumb mistakes. Let’s all remember though that dumb mistakes in business are not illegal, and the whole point of a private market is to enable “natural consequences” for businesses that make them. Some people will need to touch the hot stove of AI to understand how it could hurt them. I’m not sure there is any way to stop that, or even if we should.