India’s Finance Workforce Must Evolve Beyond Reporting in the AI Era, Say AICPA Executives

As artificial intelligence, automation, and Global Capability Centers continue to redefine the future of finance, senior leaders from The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) said India is rapidly evolving beyond its traditional back-office image into a strategic decision-making hub for global finance operations.

Speaking to CIOL on the sidelines of the CFO Summit India and RISE2040 Conference in Bengaluru, Mark Koziel, President and CEO of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and Tom Hood, Executive Vice-President of Business Engagement and Growth at AICPA, said the accounting and finance profession is undergoing one of its biggest transformations in decades, driven by AI-led workflows, changing workforce structures, and growing demand for strategic finance talent.

The summit, organised recently by The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, representing AICPA and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), brought together CFOs, finance leaders, and industry executives to discuss AI-enabled finance, anticipatory decision-making, workforce transformation, governance, and the future of enterprise finance functions.

Beyond Transactional Finance Roles

Koziel said India has already begun transitioning from a transactional support destination to a strategic global finance ecosystem. “I think it already is,” he said, referring to India’s evolution as a finance hub. “A lot of organisations that came here initially for transactional work have already transformed beyond that. Some firms entering India today are skipping the transactional phase altogether and directly building transformation-led operations.”

He added that India’s experience in building and managing GCCs has positioned the country as a global knowledge and leadership centre for multinational enterprises expanding similar operations elsewhere. “The experts in building global capability centres now largely live here in India,” Koziel said. “When corporations and firms look at building operations in other regions, they are increasingly looking to India for leadership, strategy, and operational expertise.”

Hood said this transition is becoming critical for the future of the global finance profession. “For us to thrive in an AI environment, finance professionals have to become force multipliers with AI,” he said. “That means moving toward higher-value services, strategic thinking, judgement, and trust-based oversight.” Hood added that AI adoption is not eliminating the profession but fundamentally changing the skills required within it.

Finance Teams Expected To Supervise AI Agents

One of the strongest themes to emerge from the discussions was the growing integration of AI agents and automation into enterprise finance workflows.

Hood said younger finance professionals may soon find themselves managing AI systems far earlier in their careers than previous generations did. “There will be agents established inside organisations, and younger professionals will supervise them,” he said. “They will need to validate outputs, coach the systems when they make mistakes, and manage AI workflows much like they would manage junior employees.”

He added that finance organisations are already beginning to redesign workforce structures around AI-assisted operations. “We are seeing organisational charts where human employees are supported by layers of AI agents underneath them. That changes the type of skills required very early in a professional’s career.”

Both executives acknowledged that while AI may reduce some entry-level repetitive work, the broader expansion of enterprise operations and finance transformation initiatives is likely to continue generating demand for skilled professionals.

Koziel said the shift may reshape traditional workforce pyramids into more middle-management-heavy structures. “The lower-end structure is being challenged to a degree, but we are going to need far more people at the manager and supervisory levels,” he said. “Those professionals will need to be prepared differently — and much earlier.”

Predictive Finance

AICPA leaders said finance teams are increasingly moving away from purely retrospective reporting toward predictive and operational decision-making roles. Hood described the shift as finance moving “from the rear-view mirror to the windshield.”

“Compliance and reporting still matter, but they consume less time now,” Hood said. “Finance teams are reinvesting that time into helping businesses become more profitable, more operationally efficient, and more forward-looking.”

The changing role of finance leaders is also creating hybrid operational positions inside enterprises. “There’s an emerging role where finance leaders are effectively becoming operational strategists,” Hood said. “They are no longer just looking backward at numbers — they are helping guide future business decisions.”

Koziel noted that technology adoption has long been part of the finance profession, but AI is accelerating the pace and scale of transformation significantly. “All major enterprise platforms are now evolving around AI capabilities,” Hood added, citing SAP, Oracle, and Workday. “Finance organisations are modernising systems so they can take advantage of AI embedded into enterprise software.”

Upskilling Remains the Biggest Challenge

Despite optimism around AI adoption, both executives point to upskilling and resistance to change as the profession’s major barriers.

“The biggest challenge is ourselves,” Hood said. “The profession itself is its own biggest barrier to making this leap into the future.” He stressed that the required shift is as much about mindset as it is about technical knowledge. “These are not just technical AI skills. Judgement, governance, trust, and understanding how to integrate AI responsibly into workflows are equally important.”

Koziel compared the current transition to earlier technology adoption cycles, noting that every transformation produces a mix of early adopters and laggards. He added that India’s relatively young workforce could give the country a meaningful edge over ageing economies such as the US and parts of Europe. “India’s workforce is incredibly young,” Koziel said. “In markets like the US and Europe, many professionals are approaching retirement, while India has an opportunity to accelerate adoption because of its demographic advantage.”

India Central To Global Strategy

The Association’s increased focus on India is being shaped by growing demand from employers operating GCCs and finance hubs across the country. Koziel said large multinational firms are increasingly asking for India-focused learning, advisory, and upskilling support.

“We realised we had made a lot of learning available in the US, but not necessarily globally,” he said. “Firms here told us they wanted more support around audit innovation, client accounting services, advisory skills, and transformation-led finance roles.”

The Association currently represents more than 5,80,000 members and students globally across AICPA and CIMA networks. Koziel said India represents one of the organisation’s most strategically important growth markets going forward.

Hood said the organisation is now working more closely with employers in India rather than focusing solely on individual members. “We realised we needed to understand how employers here are thinking and what skills they need. This is not a one-time initiative, it’s an ongoing process.”

Both executives said the organisation plans to deepen engagement across multiple Indian cities beyond Bengaluru, including Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Chennai, and emerging Tier-2 hubs.

The discussions formed part of the Association’s broader RISE2040 initiative, a long-term global programme examining how the accounting and finance profession must evolve in response to AI, automation, workforce changes, and emerging business models.

As enterprises continue integrating AI into core business operations, the finance profession may ultimately become one of the clearest examples of how human oversight and machine intelligence will increasingly coexist inside modern organisations.