New Research Examines The Use Of AI In Financial Reporting
New Research Examines The Use Of AI In Financial Reporting
Publish Date: 2026-05-12 09:44:00
Source Domain: www.forbes.com
Given its core ability in natural language creation, a team of researchers set out to examine the role of AI in the writing of 10-K annual reports, prepared remarks in conference calls, and earnings press releases.
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Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to impact many corporate financial reporting tasks. Given its core ability in natural language creation, a team of researchers set out to examine the role of AI in the writing of 10-K annual reports, prepared remarks in conference calls, and earnings press releases.
The resulting research study is titled “Generative AI in Financial Reporting” and is forthcoming at the Journal of Accounting Research. The study is authored by Elizabeth Blankespoor from the University of Washington and Ed deHaan and Qianqian Li from Stanford University.
“We first tested GPTZero, a GenAI detection tool, in the financial reporting context. We fed it AI-modified reports to validate its ability to detect AI-modifications. We then ran the detection tool on four types of disclosures – risk factors, MD&A, conference calls, and earnings press releases. Our team examined over 14 years of reports to estimate the extent of AI-modified language. We studied how the probability that the disclosure was written with AI changed once ChatGPT was released in late 2022. We also investigated how AI use varied between different types of companies,” says Blankespoor.
Overall, the study reports rising use of AI in the writing of financial reporting disclosures from late 2022 to 2024. The rates of usage were statistically bigger than zero, but modest. For example, the average use of AI in the reporting of company risk factors in the 10-K was 4.3% in 2024. However, these estimates are lower-bounds because different prompts and human editing make it hard to detect all AI use.
The researchers found that smaller companies and companies with fewer financial reporting resources were more likely to use AI in their reporting. AI adoption was…
