For decades, the path to success in the Big Four has been clear, if humble.
Juniors worked diligently on time-consuming and repetitive tasks such as drafting documents and slide decks, data entry, coordination, and quality checks.
This task taught them the basic skills and rationale behind the work they would later lead as directors and partners.
Agent AI is changing that. Big Four leaders say agents will soon be able to handle menial tasks, freeing up younger employees to focus on strategic work.
This change is creating new challenges for young employees and talent leaders. If they skip the monotonous work, how will they develop the deep understanding that traditionally comes from years of repetition?
“That’s the big question right now, and no one has an answer,” Yvonne Hinson, CEO of the American Accounting Association, told Business Insider.
When people move up the ladder without understanding the work that lies beneath them, there is a risk for both companies and customers, she said.
Even within companies, leaders recognize uncertainty. Niale Cleobury, AI workforce lead at KPMG, told Business Insider in November that the question is how to develop these core skills when integrating agents into teams.
“We probably don’t know the answer to that question 100%,” Cleoberry said.
At this year’s Davos, Business Insider’s Kim Last found that many executives also lacked answers about the next generation of workers.
“My sense is that the leaders gathered here are not thinking deeply about how education and job readiness need to evolve to meet this moment for young workers,” Rust reported.
“Why is it not enough to just do tasks?”
AI agents can now sift through vast amounts of information in seconds and create summaries and recommendations that once took days or weeks.
But experts warn that this efficiency comes with cognitive risks. If people only look at the output generated by AI, they may feel like they have a deep understanding of something. Some warn of overdependence or codependency, where users lose confidence in their own judgment.
Closing the skills gap for thousands of junior employees across global offices has become a key focus for talent leaders at Big Four companies.
At KPMG, learning patterns need to change, Cleoberry said. Rather than simply performing tasks from scratch, junior employees need to deconstruct the agent’s output and understand how conclusions are drawn.
Tax interns receive AI training at KPMG’s Lakehouse training facility in Florida. Polly Thompson
“We always ask ourselves: Even as technology changes the origin of the experience, how can we ensure that employees are learning the fundamental concepts behind the work?” said Margaret Burke, PwC’s US talent acquisition and development leader.
Burke said PwC’s approach is “not just to teach the task, but to teach the ‘why’.”
“We believe that foundational skills remain important. Even as AI assists with some of the work, our early career professionals are learning how the work fits together and how to ask better questions,” she said.
For every AI technical skill that PwC teaches its employees, there is a corresponding human skill. The company told Business Insider that new hires will complete a “four-day AI immersion course” where they will learn both how to work with AI and how to leverage human skills.
Deloitte did not respond to specific questions about the skills gap, but Jim Rowan, head of AI at Deloitte US, recently told Business Insider that the company is “aggressively investing” in upskilling its employees.
new job, different skills
Perhaps old learning models are not the only or best way to develop leaders in an AI-first workplace.
AI is already changing the nature of work at the Big Four, bringing massive transformation and deeper domain expertise to consulting departments and driving greater efficiency and strategy to accounting departments.
KPMG’s Cleo Berry said consultants are actually returning to the core of who they used to be: “strategic advisors, people who have a strong hand on the client’s back.”
You will then need to develop different skills, and strategic decision-making and client contact will become more important.
Errol Gardner, EY’s global vice chairman of consulting, told Business Insider that a fundamental skill set includes developing judgment about where and how to use AI.
“Graduates learn by implementing and observing real projects with experienced consultants,” Gardner said. “If anything, AI assistance will allow us to provide earlier information to client and stakeholder decision makers.”
Companies argue that early exposure can accelerate development rather than weaken it.
“AI can actually help early-career professionals get into higher-value jobs faster because it gives them the opportunity to be more deliberate about their development,” PwC’s Burke said.
Gardner said the next generation of employees will come to EY with strengths that their predecessors didn’t have, and their differences will be an advantage rather than a disadvantage.
“We continue to introduce new talent to clients earlier, assign them responsibility for interrogating and explaining AI-assisted analytics, and rotate them across teams to identify patterns and challenge norms,” Gardner said.
AI-native graduates have the potential to challenge long-held norms in ways that today’s leaders cannot, making multigenerational teams even more important, he said.
Whether the approach can truly replace old learning models that perform tedious tasks remains an open question. The Big 4 may only be answered once a generation of AI-native managers rises to the top and becomes the leaders of tomorrow.
Any tips? To contact this reporter via email, please specify the following address: pthompson@businessinsider.com Or send a signal with Polly_Thompson.89. Use a personal email address, non-work WiFi network, and non-work device. here is our guide Share information securely.
