ABSTRACT
New digital solutions that automatise white-collar work have received considerable attention in contemporary news and caused speculation about the future of various professions. In this chapter, the authors address robotic process automation (RPA) and the revitalised extinction prophecy related to the accounting profession. In the context of the extinction prophecy, they analyse the portfolio of accounting tasks and review the accounting literature, with a focus on RPA as a digital solution. The portfolio of accounting tasks analysis demonstrates that RPA mainly targets administrative tasks, leaving more analytical tasks unaffected. They review the current state of research on RPA in the accounting field but fail to find explicit support for the extinction prophecy. Therefore, the authors suggest a sceptical view of this alongside an acknowledgement of the opportunities provided by RPA.
