The American Institute of CPAs presented the results of a research project forecasting where the accounting profession will be in 2025.

Victor Velazquez

The year-long initiative, known as CPA Horizons 2025, drew from more than 75,000 comments from 5,600 CPAs in various roles in the profession.

“They collectively felt that the profession has tremendous opportunities to leverage talents and expertise to respond quickly and competitively to shifting demands,” said AICPA senior vice president of people, strategy and enterprise management Victor Velazquez.

The AICPA announced some of the findings at its Fall Meeting of Council in Phoenix on Monday and plans to release the full report on Wednesday at www.cpahorizons2025.org.

They include the need to understand and leverage technology. Technology was the most frequently cited issue in the survey, including taking ownership over the cloud computing space, according to Jim Bourke of WithumSmith+Brown, an incoming member of the AICPA board of directors.

Other priorities included evolving the educational framework to keep pace with the changing dynamics of business, government and the profession; positioning the CPA as a premier designation of the accounting and finance profession throughout the world; increasing the visibility of the profession’s value proposition by demonstrating core values in multiple areas of business and society; and addressing both U.S. and global demographic shifts.

Women now represent over half of the new accounting professionals now hired by CPA firms, Velazquez noted, and globalization is top of mind for a significant number of CPAs. “The profession must respond to these changes and must adjust to a modern workforce,” he said.