What will define the future of accounting and finance?
I believe the answer will be less about what accountants know how to do and more about the value they create with what they know.
Rise2040: Shaping the Future of Finance and Accounting is an initiative facilitated by AICPA and CIMA. It brought together 6,263 finance and accounting leaders across 25 countries and 95 Future Forums. I had the unique opportunity to collaborate with AICPA and CIMA as my Anticipatory Organization® framework was used as the foundation for these global conversations.
What emerged deserves the attention of every finance and accounting leader: the accountant of 2040 is moving from historian to strategist, from information reporter to insight and trust leader, and from reactive service provider to anticipatory adviser.
Why Is the Future of Accounting About More Than AI?
We all know that AI will become increasingly capable, automation will continue eliminating routine work, data volumes will continue growing, and real-time reporting will increasingly replace periodic reporting.
These are examples of industry-specific Hard Trend future facts we can identify with confidence. This is because they are based on measurable, predictable forces.
Rise2040 used my distinction between Hard Trend future facts and Soft Trend assumptions about the future that can be influenced or changed to help participants move beyond speculation. The goal wasn’t to leave people asking what might happen by 2040. We wanted people asking: What do we know will happen, and what opportunities does that certainty create?
The answers to those questions is where the future of finance gets interesting.
When you identify what you are certain about, you can stop waiting for change and start acting on it.
Will AI Make Accountants and Finance Professionals Less Relevant?
There is a predictable assumption that if AI can perform more accounting tasks, accountants must become less valuable.
But from my perspective, that assumption confuses tasks with value.
Rise2040 participants expect routine compliance work to become increasingly automated, with AI agents operating in the background. But they also envision humans remaining accountable for outcomes and final approvals, changing where professional value resides.
Instead of spending as much time executing repeatable tasks, professionals can spend more time on:
- Strategic guidance and decision support
- AI oversight and governance
- Data interpretation and predictive insight
- Anticipatory and scenario planning
- Human-centered advisory
- Professional judgment
This is why AI and the accounting profession should not be framed simply as a replacement story. It is a value migration story.
The work changes, but the need for trusted professionals remains.
Why Could Trust Become More Valuable as AI Advances?
One of the most striking findings in Rise2040 was how consistently one word surfaced across regions, roles, and career stages: trust.
As you may be able to see already, AI has created an interesting paradox in the professional world.
As intelligent systems generate more information faster, organizations still need someone who can determine whether that information is accurate, meaningful, ethical, and appropriate for the decisions being made.
It takes decades of experience and learning to become wise. That’s why I have said for years that “There is no such thing as artificial wisdom.” Rise2040 captured this clearly. Wisdom in the age of AI is recognizing when data may be telling the wrong story. It means understanding context and exercising ethical judgment when an automated answer is insufficient.
To specify: The more technology can do, the more valuable trusted human judgment can become.
That is why Rise2040 describes the future as Human in the Lead.
What Does It Mean to Become an Anticipatory Adviser?
The Rise2040 findings describe several shifts in professional identity, including:
- Historian → Strategist
- Compliance enforcer → Anticipatory adviser
- Information reporter → Insight and trust leader
- Siloed technician → Business-wide dot connector
- Reactive service provider → Proactive source of insight
These shifts are bigger than simply adopting a new technology that makes its way into your industry. They change the question finance and accounting professionals bring into the room.
A reactive professional asks: “What happened, and how should we respond?”
An anticipatory adviser also asks the questions: “What can we see coming, what predictable problems will it create, and what can we do about them now?”
What is being reshaped is strategic advisory accounting, bringing it to a much higher level.
How Can Finance Leaders Start Building the Accountant of 2040 Now?
2040 may sound distant. Many of the finance and accounting trends shaping it are already visible.
That gives leaders an opportunity to begin right now.
Start by asking these three questions:
- Which parts of our current work will increasingly be automated?
- Where will human judgment, trust, and strategic insight become more valuable as a result?
- What capabilities should we develop now rather than waiting until demand forces us to respond?
Those questions move the conversation from predicting the future of accountants to preparing professionals to create it.
The biggest opportunity won’t be in protecting yesterday’s definition of an accountant.
Get Ready to Help Shape the Future of Finance and Accounting
Rise2040 is highlighting a much bigger perspective on the future of accounting and finance than that of many in the profession. It captures the thinking of thousands of professionals and provides a starting point for a profession deciding what it wants to become.
Be sure to download the full Rise2040 report to see how more than 6,000 finance and accounting leaders across 25 countries envision the profession’s future.
You can also learn to become a master of identifying Hard and Soft Trends and become an anticipatory advisor by clicking on the link to my Anticipatory Organization Transformation Accelerator for Finance and Accounting.
