AI threats(and opportunities)to management and accounting academy: views from an editor and educator

The keynote ""Challenges and Opportunities of AI for Accounting Education"" aims to explore the profound transformations that artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models such as ChatGPT, are bringing to the management and accounting academy and specifically to accounting education (AE). The recent acceleration in AI development has created what can be described as a ""change-inducing crisis,"" offering a unique opportunity for the management and accounting academy to reassess the functionalist and technical reductionist view that has historically dominated the field. In this presentation, Greg Stoner will argue that while AI poses certain threats, it also opens the door to the incorporation of a renewed human dimension in accounting education, emphasising broader social and critical perspectives. We will discuss how AI can act as a catalyst for curricular renewal, moving beyond the technical, financial, and managerial focus that has been the foundation of accounting education for decades. The proposal also calls for the management and accounting academy to take on a leadership role in adapting management and accounting education to the needs of contemporary society. This involves ""taking education back from the market"" and ensuring that accounting education is technically relevant, socially engaged, and critically reflective.
We invite educators, researchers, and professionals to consider how AI can serve as an ally in reshaping teaching practices and preparing accounting professionals who are better equipped to face the ethical and social challenges that the discipline will encounter in the 21st century.