The Impact of AI on Early Careers in the Accountancy Sector

ICAEW’s research into mid-tier accountancy firms found that, while firms expect AI to reduce demand for some early-career tasks, most do not anticipate an overall reduction in junior recruitment. ACCA’s Global Talent Trends report similarly suggests routine tasks will become more automated while accountants increasingly move towards judgement, assurance, governance and decision support.

AI can make early careers better

The opportunity is to use AI not to replace early-career professionals, but to help them develop faster.

Michelle Cardwell, Head of Accountancy Education at IFAC, recently told a First Intuition forum:

“Junior roles are evolving: second-year skills are now expected in the first year. AI is accelerating the baseline.”

This is not a new dynamic. Firms have been looking to change the nature of the “pyramid structure” to their businesses for years. Over a decade ago KPMG introduced an accelerated training programme that aimed to complete all professional qualification studying in year 1 in order that client work could be prioritised in year 2 onwards. The difference now is that there are wider skills needed earlier in a career than were expected a decade ago – and that presents an exciting opportunity.

If AI can reduce the time we all spend on repetitive processing and administrative work, that time can instead be spent developing the skills that add greater value like working with clients, interpreting information, solving problems, contributing to advisory work and communicating with stakeholders.

Roles can become more attractive to a generation entering a workplace shaped by technology. The role of a finance professional can be opened up to a wider range of people rather than the traditional view that it is “numbers and maths focused individuals”. Deloitte recently posted that they would like every one of their new recruits to have spent time working in a pub to build people skills, demonstrating the importance they are placing on this. AI creates opportunities for people to combine technology with commercial thinking and influence business decisions much earlier in their careers.

Human skills will matter more

As technology becomes more capable, I believe human skills will become increasingly important.

Critical thinking, communication, professional scepticism, relationship building, commercial awareness and ethical judgement are what turn information into meaningful insight.

AI can generate analysis, but a finance professional still needs to understand what it means. People need to build trusted client relationships and take accountability for a business decisions.

Technical accounting knowledge therefore remains essential too. Accountants need strong fundamentals to interpret outputs, identify errors and challenge what technology produces.

The future finance professional will need a combination of technical expertise, digital fluency and human skills.

This is one reason apprenticeships will remain so important. By combining structured learning with workplace experience, they develop technical competence alongside communication, problem solving, commercial awareness and professional confidence.

We all need to embrace this change. From training providers to employers, to those learning on the job

The answer is not to protect early-career roles from change, but redesign them for the world people are entering.

There are several things I believe employers should prioritise:

• Develop technical, digital and human skills together. Building multi-dimensional employees is going to be at the core of every organisation’s L&D strategy for the next few years.
• Give trainees higher-value exposure earlier. Client meetings, presentations, commercial discussions and advisory work should become a core part of development. The more access to practice in a “safe space” with constructive feedback is key to developing the confidence to perform well in the workplace.
• Use AI to support human led learning. There are plenty of examples now where agents can simulate client conversations, generate business scenarios, act as on-demand tutors and provide feedback on reports and presentations. Used appropriately, AI can create learning experiences that previously took years to encounter. The key is ensuring the feedback received is authentic and useful to enhance learning.
• Invest in coaching and mentoring. Reducing repetitive work also removes some traditional opportunities to learn through experience. Employers need to replace these deliberately through structured coaching and knowledge transfer.
• Teach people to challenge the output of AI generated reports and information. Future accountants must be able to question outputs, identify risks and apply professional scepticism, rather than simply becoming proficient users of technology.

Human led technology enabled…

…is a term used a lot by employers who are looking to navigate the changes that new technology offers them. As customers when dealing with highly important matters we expect the professionals we are engaged with to use technology, but also to have the expertise to ensure the solution offered is focused on the individual set of criteria that I have, not generic.

We are all happy using ChatGPT to work out rough holiday plans, but when it comes to spending thousands of pounds we want to confirm that with a professional who has the experience. Finance professionals of the future need to have great human skills first and foremost, be strong in their use of technology and have the expertise and confidence to challenge.

Exciting times….

By Martin Taylor, CEO of First Intuition