By Amanda Dominguez, Chief Operating Officer at Wiss.
The accounting profession’s talent pipeline is shrinking at an alarming pace. According to the 2024 Finance & Accounting Talent Market Outlook, 83% of senior leaders report an accounting talent shortage, up from 70% in 2022. To deal with this talent shortage, accounting firms are using AI to create efficiency and capacities.
Some firms are reducing entry-level openings as a result of implementing AI — an effort that may now be creating a new problem for the hiring numbers of entry-level staff. Stanford University researchers recently found that entry-level workers entering jobs exposed to AI have seen a 13% decline in employment since 2022. Not only is it harder to secure entry-level positions, but AI has also taken over the foundational tasks that gave new accounting hires the knowledge to progress to higher-value work.
AI Renders Traditional Entry-Level Training Obsolete
Historically, the way entry-level workers gained their career knowledge in accounting is “learning by doing.” As AI makes this method no longer viable, entry level workers will have to be taught differently to establish those foundational skills and put them into practice. This can lead to risks of knowledge gaps and skill progression bottlenecks if it’s not handled with care.
As AI takes over transactional tasks such as data entry, reconciliation, journal entries, and compliance checks, entry-level workers risk losing the opportunity to fully understand the practical application and purpose of some accounting functions. Consider an entry-level employee who learns the theory of debit and credit but never experiences the process of finding and correcting an error in a ledger. Finding and correcting these errors hands-on can help solidify their understanding of that task.
The “learning by doing” method is crucial to identify and correct mistakes. When accountants don’t become super familiar with routine tasks, they risk not understanding what “looks wrong” in a financial statement or a dataset, hindering their ability to troubleshoot and problem-solve complex issues later.
Future-Proofing Accounting Education
Rather than avoiding new hires or continuing the current apprenticeship model, the accounting profession needs to rethink the foundational skills it teaches. Specifically, it will be crucial for new accounting workers to lean into the technology and understand the benefits it can offer them in their day-to-day work.
The profession will have to shift education to ensure foundational knowledge is still built and focus on vetting AI outcomes, learning and understanding the tools and how they work, how to work alongside AI, and changing the way newer staff is practicing those foundational skills. Instead of focusing on where numbers go, entry staff can focus on why they’re there in the first place and how they can stay in their roles, which is ultimately how to be a trusted advisor today.
Technology is changing the tactics that have been used in the past to get the answers and how we carry out routine tasks, but it’s enriching the work by allowing staff to focus on higher-value tasks, which is part of the analysis skills that entry-level workers will need in their accounting career.
Training Young Accountants in the AI Era
To shift the education of entry-level workers to prevent AI-induced knowledge gaps, accounting companies should implement these key strategies:
- Transform the Learning & Development Model: Since newer workers won’t be tasked with inputting data anymore, companies should create AI simulations to train employees on how to pinpoint where there are anomalies in the AI outputs. This will ensure they are building their foundational skills alongside AI in a controlled setting.
- Redefine the Core Skill Set: What was once considered soft skills, such as people skills, tech fluency, and analytical thinking, will become critical for success in the age of AI and must be fully integrated into accounting and finance education.
- Broaden Talent Acquisition: Accounting companies should look to hire accountants that not only have accounting literacy but also tech fluency and analytical skills. This will ensure newer staff have the necessary skills to work confidently alongside AI and can engage with clients in a personable and valuable way, focusing on the why behind the numbers.
Ultimately, by rethinking the foundational skills to teach entry-level accounting workers, the profession can set young accountants on the right path to become a trusted advisor alongside evolving technology. Doing so will create a more adaptable workforce that can be ready for the inevitable changes technology brings to the profession.
Skill Evolution Defines the Next Generation
While today’s challenges may feel unique, this isn’t the first time the profession has had to adapt to change. The profession has previously evolved with the speed of technology. Young professionals can leverage this shift to adapt and acquire the skills necessary to thrive in an AI work environment. Consider when the profession introduced OCR technology to automate tax returns. At the time, partners worried that new staff wouldn’t learn tax basics. But no one learned to stop doing them, the profession just adjusted. The same is true today with AI.
As technology continues to accelerate, those who view continuous skill evolution as the permanent standard for the profession will be successful and define the next generation of accounting.
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Amanda Dominguez is the Chief Operating Officer at Wiss. Amanda plays an integral role as a key member of the firm’s leadership team and helps to execute the firm’s short and long-term strategic goals. She manages the day-to-day operations of the firm, as well as provides strategic leadership to each of the organization’s service lines and internal operational functions, including People, Marketing, Information Technology and Administration.
With over a decade of experience in regional public accounting firms, serving in roles on both the client service and operations teams, Amanda has developed a wide breadth of expertise and insight into all areas of the accounting profession and operation. This foundation has helped to position her as a powerful liaison in understanding and offering high-impact and people-first solutions that address the needs and aspirations of both the business and its employees.
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