The American Institute of CPAs on Monday launched a new initiative designed to identify and develop the skills early-career CPAs need for success in a rapidly evolving and increasingly AI-driven marketplace.
The Profession Ready Initiative addresses one of the accounting profession’s most pressing needs, said Susan Coffey, the CEO of public accounting for the AICPA. As the nature of the accounting profession’s work evolves, the profession must help emerging professionals identify and quickly develop essential skills while providing employers with the frameworks and tools they need to build high-performing teams.
“We need to understand what it will take for the next generation of CPAs to thrive in an increasingly complex business world,” she said in a statement on Feb. 2. “Both emerging talent and the organizations that employ them want and need support to navigate this transformation successfully.”
The Profession Ready Initiative “offers a road map that may help other professions grappling with similar challenges: how to prepare the next generation of talent when AI and other environmental factors are fundamentally changing the nature of work,” the AICPA said in a media release. “It demonstrates how professions can lead workforce transformation rather than react to it.”
The research, led by SkillEdge, a research firm with expertise in professional practice analysis and competency modeling, will examine the roles early-career CPAs perform, the skills required to excel, how job expectations align against education curricula, and where professionals need additional development support.
The AICPA said it will study two critical career stages: aspiring CPAs at the entry level and licensed CPAs at approximately the four-year mark, capturing insights on both current needs and how skill requirements will evolve through 2030.
“The initiative’s comprehensive research will identify critical skills to enable the profession to focus its collective efforts where they will matter most,” the AICPA said.
The initiative will deliver three key outputs:
- A skills framework to guide the training and development of early-career CPAs.
- Learning solutions that use emerging technologies to help professionals quickly build their skills.
- Teaching resources for universities to better align academic preparation with workforce requirements.
The AICPA said it will conduct surveys, focus groups, and discussion sessions throughout the year engaging thousands of practitioners, employers, educators, and other leaders “to understand the skills that are required in this new normal” and how to best instill them in early-career professionals.
“This initiative is grounded in research, listening, and input. We’re engaging with aspiring CPAs and professionals across every area, from major firms to small practices, from corporate finance departments to government agencies, from community colleges to four-year universities,” Lindsay Stevenson, chief strategy officer for top 50 accounting firm BPM and chair of the AICPA’s Profession Ready Initiative Advisory Group, said in a statement. “This initiative is for you, and we need your input.”
The research phase launches this month with the first of multiple surveys. Additional surveys and focus groups will continue throughout 2026. Members of the CPA community can participate by taking the survey here.
After completing the research phase, the AICPA said it will release a draft of its findings for public comment in 2027, allowing the accounting profession and its stakeholders to provide feedback before publishing final frameworks and resources.
Ultimately, the Profession Ready Initiative will deliver new learning tools and resources for use by employers, academics, and early-career professionals, the AICPA stated.
“Through this initiative, we are creating a framework that will help young talent succeed throughout their careers, and help employers develop top-performing teams,” Coffey said. “Everyone invested in the future of the profession will benefit.”
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