Management Accounting Information in Decision-making: Unveiling Possibilities for AI

Abstract

Despite the great opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI) in decision-making, the combination has been neglected among management accounting researchers. A qualitative multiple case study was used to address the issue within four case companies and eleven semi-structured interviews. The cases cover production forecast, sales targeting, productivity investment and target setting decisions. As a result, I suggest a new data accountant role, who acts as a translator between AI and managers. He/she translates the needs of managers to AI and then explains the results and logic to the managers. Major limitation is that AI was not used in the cases, which makes this study more future-oriented. More research, especially practical cases on decision-making with AI, is needed. For managers, this thesis underlines that accounting and AI have many other roles than just giving answers, and they have to be actively managed in order to promote healthy decision-making culture.