KPMG to roll out accounting simulator

With increased automation and AI in accounting, much of the more manual “grunt work” that junior accountants traditionally performed can be relegated to technology. Theoretically, that should enable newer accountants to do more challenging work earlier in their careers—to exercise critical thinking and judgment, and spend more time with clients.

PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer suggests the shift toward “seniorization” is already underway, and that entry-level roles in heavily AI-exposed industries are now seven times more likely to require skills that were once considered higher-level.

But without years of experience under their belts, how will junior accountants be ready for these more complex roles? AI itself might provide part of the answer, Ann Holley, national managing partner for tax at KPMG, told CFO Brew.

Seniorization is real. “People are moving up the curve a lot faster,” she said. New hires need to grasp concepts like the nuances of tax laws and are building client relationships sooner, she said.

And, in some ways, that’s a positive. “A real plus of coming out of school right now is you can really hit the ground running even more so than you could before,” she said.

Move over, GTA 6. To help new hires build skills, KPMG is rolling out TaxSIM, a gamified accounting simulator, later this year. Developed in partnership with Centaurian AI (Cory Doctorow, take note!), TaxSIM resembles a video game that takes accountants through various scenarios they might encounter on the job. The challenges players face range from the technical—reviewing a tax return, which an AI persona then provides feedback on—to the interpersonal, such as a client not handing in documents on time. At more advanced levels, it could include topics such as tariffs and macroeconomic changes, Centaurian CEO and founder Kes Sampanthar told Business Insider.

Holley likens TaxSIM to exercise. “It’s getting our professionals those ‘reps at the gym’ to build the muscle memory, to get that experience, to give them the confidence and the judgment that is so critical,” she said.

The importance of human oversight is baked into the program. KPMG uses the mantra “think-prompt-check” to encourage staff to use AI with care, Holley said. “Think-prompt-check is something that I think is really resonating, in part because it’s easy to remember,” she said. “It’s that reminder that there’s way more to it than whatever the technology spits out. It’s human judgment. We’ve got a layer on top to really make sure that we’re using it responsibly.”

Empowering younger staff. Though AI can be a time-saver, the “next frontier” of AI use is using the technology to maximize value, Holley said. “That’s where a lot of the focus is now,” she said. The most successful AI users are “the ones that have intellectual curiosity, the ones that are using AI in a really efficient manner, and by efficient, I mean they know how to extract the value” from it.

And AI is actually empowering more junior staff to be “entrepreneurial” and drive change, Holley said. “My ideal is that they come in and they challenge us,” she said. As is the case with major tax law changes, the novelty of AI “means anybody can be the expert pretty quickly because nobody else has a leg up on you,” she said. “There’s nobody that has 20 years of experience using AI.”

Holley’s not overly concerned if new accountants aren’t doing as much manual work. “That grunt work probably might not have had the value and the experience to really get them to the judgment,” she pointed out.

And, she noted, the move away from manual work is something the accounting profession’s been managing for decades. Holley’s seen it happen firsthand over the course of her 30-plus-year career with KPMG.

“When I started, it was in the day of the dot matrix printers,” she said. “I would have a printout that was literally six inches tall of a general ledger, and some of what I had to do was key in the account number, the account name, and the balance.”

“I would be really upset if we had anybody [doing] something similar today,” she said.