tax and accounting professionals should be concerned about artificial intelligence (AI), but not in the sense of trying to stop it. In order to avoid the elimination demand of CPAs, we should prepare ourselves to embrace it and know how to use it to our advantage in our profession. A recent article from the Wall Street Journal explains how one of the Big Four accounting firms, KPMG, is taking steps to remain relevant in a world of AI. KPMG has recently expanded partnership with Microsoft and is expected to bring in $12 billion in revenue over the next five years. KPMG plans to invest $2 billion in artificial intelligence and cloud services across its business lines globally to further automate aspects of its tax, audit and consulting services (Maurer, 2023). Their goal is to enable their employees to provide faster analysis; enhance its workforce with AI skills by moving people to new roles or offering them training; focus more on strategic advice; and help other companies integrate AI into their operations (Maurer, 2023).

KPMG will have early access to an AI assistant called Microsoft 365 Copilot and through this technology allow them to strengthen its work related to environmental, social and governance issues by unifying massive data sets for tax reporting, analyzing potential ESG-related transactions and performing data analysis for audits (Maurer, 2023).