Basu (2008) chaired a panel on “Big Unanswered Questions in Accounting,” which was subsequently published as a series of six commentaries in Accounting Horizons. In that spirit, and motivated by the unprecedented pace of change in technology, the current editorial raises questions regarding analytic and information technology issues.
In previous editorials, a set of emerging issues was discussed: (1) the context of the AIS field in an age of rapid change and evolution (Vasarhelyi 2012a), (2) the role of financial accounting standards in a database-oriented world (Vasarhelyi 2012b), (3) the potential for formalization of standards whereby soft and hard intelligent agents can perform much of the work (Vasarhelyi 2013), and (4) the emerging opportunities being presented by big data and the associated potential implications for accounting and auditing (Moffitt and Vasarhelyi 2013). This editorial addresses major questions that could dramatically and...