Yes, accountants are becoming rare, facing a severe, multi-year talent shortage rather than obsolescence. Roughly 340,000 fewer accountants are working in the U.S. than five years ago, driven by high retirement rates, fewer new graduates, and, as highlighted by Kent State University, a demanding profession that is struggling to attract younger talent.
As accounting continues to change and the role adapts through new disciplines in education and on-the-job upskill training, accountants can elevate the role and their place in the organization—empowering the future of accounting to thrive with the new generation of accountants and finance professionals.
Accounting Today reported that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 5% decline in bookkeeping, accounting and auditing jobs by 2023 due to technological advancements.
The CPA credential remains a cornerstone of the profession, but new data indicate its prominence is steadily declining. Between 2020 and 2024, the average percentage of staff holding CPA licenses across all firms dropped from 56.0 percent to 48.4 percent.
Short answer: AI will not replace accountants. It will automate many repetitive accounting tasks, like data entry, invoice processing, reconciliations, and reporting, but accountants will still be needed for work that requires judgment, compliance expertise, interpretation, and/or strategic decision-making.
Monotony and lack of fulfillment
Craving more meaningful projects, creative problem solving and engaging work experience, many accountants leave the field to explore other career options where they can have a deeper sense of purpose and impact.
Summary. The accounting field offers significant earning potential, with seven high-level careers—led by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), which averages up to $570,579 annually—that require substantial experience and key credentials like the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license.
The average age of a CPA in the US is 52–53 years old.
Unsurprisingly, this talent shortage has the potential to impact organizations' bottom line, paving the way for compliance issues and errors in financial statements. As a result, the demand for accounting professionals is quickly rising and expected to grow 6% by 2025.
Declining interest among students
Fewer students are choosing accounting as a major, and the pipeline of future CPAs has been shrinking for years. Enrollment declines today translate directly into fewer entry-level hires now and a smaller pool of experienced accountants down the line.
In September 2021, O'Connor confirmed that a sequel was in development, with a possibility of a third entry. Affleck and Jon Bernthal were confirmed to reprise their roles as Christian Wolff and Brax.
By 2035, most transactional and compliance-based accounting functions will be fully automated. AI systems will handle not only data entry and reconciliations but also complex audits, financial forecasting, and regulatory updates. The traditional accountant's toolkit will be unrecognizable compared to a decade earlier.
Will CPAs become obsolete? No, CPAs will not become obsolete. While AI can handle routine tasks like data entry and invoice processing, CPAs offer strategic decision making, regulatory compliance, and personalized client support, skills that AI can't replicate.
Making $500,000 a year is quite rare, placing you in roughly the top 1% (or slightly below, depending on data) of U.S. earners, with estimates suggesting only about 0.8% to 1% of individuals or households achieve this income, though government data can obscure this; it's a significant financial milestone, yet surprisingly, many high earners still feel financially stretched due to lifestyle inflation and high costs.
A common complaint from CPA candidates concerns the enormity of the exam material. Since accounting concerns itself with frequently changing statutes and laws, there are many details one has to commit to memory. Another way to put it is that there are more than 600 key points packaged into representative tasks.
A CPA license is considered very prestigious: The CPA license is the most widely recognized professional credential in the accounting industry.