The fourth industrial revolution isn't just changing what accounting and finance professionals do — it's revealing how fundamentally broken professional development has become.
While AI capabilities advance monthly, most professional development systems still operate on traditional and linear approaches that were designed for a world that moved at the speed of textbook editions, not software updates.
Consider ChatGPT: Within months of its release, it was already transforming how millions approached their workload, leaving many professionals scrambling to upskill. In fact, according to a
But while AI has shone a light on the gaps that exist, there has long been a need for change, and the numbers reveal just how urgent this transformation has become. According to the
So how can they meet this challenge? It's important to understand where traditional systems that focus on professional development are falling short.
The speed gap
Consider this challenge: The most advanced AI models today can learn and adapt to new information in real-time, while traditional curriculum development naturally requires several years for integration.
The speed gap illustrates how academic institutions, which necessarily prioritize thorough curriculum development and validation, operate on different timelines than rapidly evolving business needs. The foundational knowledge provided by traditional education remains essential, but it needs to be complemented by more agile learning pathways for emerging skills that enable lifelong learning.
The quality gap
While speed may be essential, many professionals face learning options of dubious quality.
The explosion of online learning has met the need for emerging skills but lacks the rigor and accreditation that comes with an academic institution. This creates challenges in identifying reliable sources for emerging skills.
Research shows that employers often
The relevance gap
While broad theory and foundations are essential, working adults often need focused, immediately applicable skills that are specific to their role and complement their existing education. This is particularly true for accounting and finance professionals.
Research on adult learners consistently shows
The new professional development infrastructure
These gaps highlight the need for complementary development pathways that work alongside traditional education. As the chief product and technology officer at the Institute of Management Accountants, this is a challenge my team tackles every day: How can professionals acquire flexible, trusted, business-ready credentials that help them respond to emerging trends in their field?
Here's how we approach this at IMA, and how we recommend every employer respond when tackling the Great Reskilling challenge within their own organization.
1. Competency-based assessment
You can't stay on top of emerging technologies if you aren't regularly assessing the capabilities of your workforce.
Diagnostic assessments can provide real-time competency mapping that goes beyond static qualifications and identify emerging gaps before they become career limitations. For example, CPAs with strong foundational knowledge might discover through diagnostic assessment they need focused development in AI-powered forecasting tools to remain competitive in their current role.
These assessments need to happen on a regular cadence, outside of just the annual review cycle, so professionals can understand their competitive positioning in real-time and make strategic learning investments accordingly.
This might seem like a daunting place to start, which is why IMA surveyed hundreds of employers to determine what competencies are essential for a future-ready accounting and finance professional. We call it the
2. Targeted skill development
Skill-specific training focuses on education that will have the greatest impact on outcomes for both the individual and the organization. This approach allows professionals to enhance their existing qualifications with concentrated development in emerging areas, immediately applying new capabilities while leveraging their foundational knowledge.
The economics appeal to both adult learners and their employers, as organizations can invest in employee development more strategically, addressing real-world business problems rather than generic skill building. This targeted approach also reduces the risk that training investments become obsolete before they're fully utilized — a growing concern in rapidly evolving fields.
A finance professional, for instance, might pursue concentrated training in AI-assisted budgeting techniques that can be immediately applied to solve current business challenges, creating immediate value while building future capabilities.
3. Durable skills focus
While it's important to invest in training that responds to emerging technologies and methodologies, it's also essential to invest in the foundations that will likely transcend digital transformation.
Durable skills are the uniquely human capabilities that become increasingly critical as AI and automation expand. Yet many professionals mistakenly assume they only need to become technical experts to remain relevant.
In reality, the most valuable skills often lie in exercising sound judgment about AI recommendations, collaborating effectively in human-AI teams, and synthesizing diverse data sources into strategic insights. These competencies transfer across technological shifts, providing career resilience that technical skills alone cannot offer.
Critical durable skills include the ability to discern when AI insights require human interpretation, skill in communicating AI-derived recommendations to stakeholders who may be skeptical of automated analysis, and competency in designing AI-human workflows that optimize both efficiency and accuracy.
While technical skills may have shorter relevance cycles, these human-centered capabilities remain valuable precisely because they enhance rather than compete with AI capabilities.
4. Role-aligned learning paths
Role-aligned learning paths tie everything together by connecting competency development to specific job functions and career trajectories. Rather than one-size-fits-all professional development, these paths recognize that an accounts payable manager and a financial analyst need different competencies, even within the same organization.
This alignment ensures that learning investments translate directly to job performance improvements. A financial analyst might focus on AI-enhanced data visualization and predictive modeling, while a controller might prioritize AI applications in compliance monitoring and risk assessment. Both are developing emerging skills, but in ways that immediately enhance their current roles while building toward future opportunities.
Building capacity for ongoing relevance
Regardless of how organizations choose to approach workforce upskilling, one thing is persistently clear: Employers need to implement a shift in mindset. Organizations need to move to a continuous development framework that allows time and resources to diagnose and develop.
This doesn't mean professionals need to be constantly in formal training programs. Instead, it means building learning agility — the capacity to quickly identify, acquire and apply new competencies as business needs evolve. Organizations supporting this approach provide time and resources for diagnostic assessment, targeted skill development, and experimentation with new tools and approaches.
As AI has shown us, it's not about learning new skills once. It's about building the capacity for ongoing relevance in a world where the definition of "qualified" evolves continually, not annually. At IMA, that means helping professionals take the lead where it matters most: strategic thinking, decision-making and real-world outcomes that matter to the bottom line.
