Alfred Ramosedi CIMA president and Association co-chair
Since the future of accountancy and finance is inextricably linked to the future of the world, we should also be asking some important questions about our profession. It is for that reason that AICPA and CIMA combined forces to launch Rise2040, a profession-wide initiative that brings together 6,000 insights from across the globe to collectively explore, challenge and shape what comes next for the finance and accounting profession.
Rise2040 is not meant to predict exactly what the future holds for business. Rather, it provides finance and accounting professionals with a framework to navigate uncertainty, identify emerging opportunities and risks, and strengthen the capabilities needed to remain relevant and trusted in a rapidly changing environment.
Vision for the future
The research clearly highlights the pivotal role our profession can play in defining our collective future. It particularly underlines the huge opportunity we have to help lead the shift to an AI-powered world – a world where AI technologies are routinely deployed to automate repetitive, difficult and even dangerous tasks and create positive outcomes for individuals, organisations and communities. In this world, humans will lead machines – instead of vice versa – and they will be constantly in the loop, monitoring AI systems, intervening when appropriate, and interpreting and challenging their output.
By 2030, 70% of finance functions will use AI for real-time decision-making, according to Gartner. The firm also predicts that agentic AI will make at least 15% of daily decisions autonomously, fundamentally reshaping the work of finance and accounting professionals by taking on routine tasks and supporting more complex decision-making.
Similarly, the International Labour Organization’s World of Work Series: Employment and Social Trends 2026 highlights how technological change, including AI, is redefining tasks and skill requirements across labour markets. The report suggests that most roles will be augmented by AI rather than fully replaced, underscoring the growing need for professionals to develop new capabilities.
The imperative to provide effective oversight of machines will make trust, judgement and human leadership the true differentiators of performance in future. As a profession, we must build on our existing strengths in these three areas to further elevate our status as trusted advisers. So, how can we do this?
- Maintain trust, ethics and integrity as the non-negotiable anchors of our profession. By creating confidence in financial information and governance, and upholding high standards of ethical conduct, accountants have long acted as guardians of trust. This role should assume an even greater part of our professional identity in an era of deepfakes and largescale AI-enabled phishing attacks.
- Further hone our professional judgement. In an age of infinite information, discernment will be vital to identify critical insights, tell the real-world stories behind AI outputs, plan for different scenarios and enable robust organisational decision-making.
- See our human skills as a future differentiator. Our expertise, knowledge and human skills – including our strategic and critical thinking, relationship building and collaboration skills – will enable us to lead our organisations into the future. We can free up our time to develop and deploy those skills by taking advantage of cutting-edge technological tools. We should also be a role model for others on AI adoption, for example, by being competent and responsible users of AI systems.
Evolution of the profession
As we transition into the future, accountancy and finance professionals will be able to reinvent ourselves in new and exciting ways. Instead of concentrating on compliance and historical reporting, our focus will shift to strategic advice and providing forward-looking insights. Less scorekeeper, more futurist.
We will also be responsible stewards of our organisations, supporting them – as well as society at large – to answer the important questions facing our world. By thinking critically, acting ethically, and leading decisively, we can help our communities to thrive, whatever tomorrow brings.
To achieve this, we must remain open to change and proactive in shaping it, rather than reacting to it. That means investing not only in technology, but in people – ensuring that professionals are equipped with the skills, confidence and mindset needed to lead in an increasingly complex environment.
The transformation will be demanding, but our destination is clear: creating a profession that is more relevant, more trusted, forward-looking and more indispensable than ever before.
Explore Rise2040 data and insights through the Rise Navigator AI tool at aicpa-cima.com/rise2040
