The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) have launched Rise2040: Shaping the Future of Finance and Accounting, an initiative examining how the profession will evolve.
The programme is based on a structured international consultation involving in excess of 6,000 accounting and finance professionals across more than 25 countries.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Access deeper industry intelligence
Experience unmatched clarity with a single platform that combines unique data, AI, and human expertise.
From June 2025 to January 2026, certified public accountants, chartered global management accountants, chief finance chief financial officers, controllers, early-career practitioners and educators contributed via surveys, facilitated discussions, expert interviews and regional workshops.
The report highlighted that a “profound transformation” is already under way.
It outlined five connected forces expected to influence the profession. They are technology and data infrastructure, value model transformation, talent and workforce dynamics, regulatory and trust architecture, and market and societal expectations.
Participants indicated that technology is viewed as extending, not erasing, the role of finance and accounting professionals, allowing more focus on areas such as advisory work, scenario planning, strategy and decision support.
AICPA and CIMA CEO Mark Koziel said: “Rise2040 is not about predicting a single future, it is about equipping the profession to actively shape it.
“We are at a defining moment. As AI reshapes how work gets done, our value will increasingly be defined by human judgment, trust and the ability to lead in complexity.
“At the initiative’s core sits the Rise2040 AI platform and flagship report; both reinforce a defining insight… the future of the profession will not be determined by what happens to us, by the forces shaping it but by how we choose to respond.”
AICPA and CIMA Business Engagement & Growth executive vice-president Tom Hood said: “What emerged from this global effort is a profession that is not retreating from change but rising to meet it with humans in the lead.
“Professionals are already moving beyond compliance to become strategic advisers, data translators and trust architects.
“The opportunity now is to accelerate that shift and building the capabilities, talent models and leadership mindset needed to deliver value and trust in entirely new ways.”
