After a year at the AICPA's helm, Maryland's Lexy Kessler reflects on a profession confronting rapid change — and why talent, technology, trust and a growing sense of unity give her confidence in its future.

A year can change a lot.

When Lexy Kessler began her term as chair of the AICPA and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, she made listening and connecting with the profession a priority. Over the next 12 months, she did plenty of both.

Kessler — a former chair of the Maryland Association of CPAs and now vice chair of the MACPA Foundation — traveled extensively, visiting state CPA societies, attending conferences and board meetings, speaking with students, and meeting accounting professionals around the world. Along the way, she gained a front-row view of a profession navigating extraordinary change.

What did she find? A talent outlook that is showing encouraging signs. Growing experimentation with artificial intelligence. New questions surrounding private equity and alternative practice structures. A profession increasingly aware that the skills CPAs need are changing. And, perhaps most importantly, a renewed appreciation for the principles that have always defined the profession: trust, ethics, integrity and quality.

As Kessler handed the AICPA chair’s gavel to her successor, Jan Lewis, she joined the MACPA’s “Future-Proof” podcast to reflect on what she heard, what she learned and why she believes the profession may be more united — and better positioned for the future — than it has been in years.

Here are highlights from that conversation.

Bill Sheridan: When you began your term, one of your primary goals was to listen and connect. What did you hear from CPAs over the past year? What surprised or pleased you the most?

Lexy Kessler: I heard the “why” behind people’s comments and ideas. When you go to where people live and work, you see them in their environment. What was fabulous was the pride everybody took in their states and where they’re from.

When there were concerns about the pipeline, for instance, you could hear why — maybe something about their economy was driving those concerns. You don’t necessarily get that context at a council meeting or somewhere else.

You also begin hearing about things that might become trends. Are some firms not offering internships as much, for example? You get an understanding of what people are beginning to worry about and what they’re happy about.

People were very happy about the pipeline and the new pathway being added across multiple states. I’m thrilled that it went as fast as it did because my biggest concern, as a partner in a public accounting firm, was mobility and the business risk around mobility. States are adopting the changes quickly. It took a decade to implement the 150-hour requirement across all the states, so this has been very different.

We also started hearing clearly about the skills gap between when students graduate from college and what we need them to be able to do when they begin working for firms and corporations. You can see how that has now bubbled up into the Profession-Ready Initiative.

And along the way, I met some amazing people.

Sheridan: You traveled extensively and talked with an enormous cross-section of the profession. Where do you think we’ve made meaningful progress, and where do we still have work to do?

Kessler: One area is the Profession-Ready Initiative. Another is Rise2040.

Before our terms began, my co-chair, John Graham, and I met with AICPA leadership, and what evolved from those conversations was Rise2040. In 13 months, it involved 6,000 participants from 25 countries. It was the first global, holistic view of our profession.

Technology enabled us to gather some of that input virtually because of the distances involved. When the findings were presented to different councils, there were some differences, but the underlying themes were the same. We’re much more alike than we are different — across management accounting, public accounting and around the world.

One of the biggest things people acknowledged that might prevent us from moving forward was ourselves. We may be a barrier to where the profession needs to go.

What I love about Rise2040 is that it takes some of the top feedback and says: Here’s what the business environment needs, here’s the problem it might create, and here’s what a solution could look like. It can help provide a path for an organization or accounting firm to think strategically about moving forward.

You don’t have to do everything. Pick what makes sense for your organization. Even picking one thing may provide the catalyst you need.

Sheridan: Does Rise2040 provide next steps? Once we have the report, what do we do with it?

Kessler: It does. It identifies areas we need to think about to move forward, and it’s also going to be a living document. We’ll continue gathering input and updating it as trends evolve.

It can be a tool for individuals, too. Say you’ve just been promoted from controller to CFO. What do CFOs need to be aware of? What should you be paying attention to in your new role? It’s about the future, not what we’ve historically done.

Or if you’ve been promoted to manager, what do you need to think about for your clients? What are they looking at?

There are a lot of angles to this that I think will keep it alive and useful.

Sheridan: The talent pipeline has been a major focus of yours for years. Are you more optimistic today about our ability to attract and retain the next generation?

Kessler: I’m cautiously optimistic, but we still have a lot of work to do.

Starting salaries have increased, which is good. We’ve seen an increase in accounting enrollments for three years in a row. That’s progress. There’s a lot of great data pointing in the right direction.

But now that we’ve got students coming into accounting, we need to keep them there and keep them engaged. We need to get them to graduate in accounting and then pass the CPA Exam. We can’t take our foot off the accelerator.

The Center for Audit Quality did a survey about a year ago and asked students how much influence someone from the profession coming into their classroom had on them. More than 60% said it influenced their decision toward accounting.

So we’re starting to do more of that. We’re changing how we talk about what we do and telling a more compelling story.

The AICPA is also putting together a branding campaign around trust — trust in assurance, tax, forensics and all the things CPAs do. Research showed that people had heard of CPAs, but they didn’t necessarily know what CPAs actually do. We have an opportunity to change that.

Sheridan: That also gives current CPAs a tangible way to help. If you’re wondering what kind of impact you can have on the pipeline, go into a classroom and talk about what you do.

Kessler: Well said. That’s right.

Sheridan: We’ve spent a lot of time talking about AI and emerging technologies. What were you hearing from CPAs?

Kessler: It’s a mixed bag, but over the past year I’ve heard more about firms experimenting with it and trying things.

Back in July, I wasn’t hearing that CEOs of accounting firms were experimenting with AI. By January, I was. So you are seeing a shift at the top.

I think there’s a huge business opportunity for us because there’s so much noise in the world right now. How can we use AI to get rid of some of that noise? At the same time, how do we know the information is right when we don’t necessarily have guardrails around it yet? There could be opportunities around assurance and helping organizations determine whether they can trust what AI is producing.

You have small firms that are early adopters and large firms making significant investments. And we’re already adopting AI without necessarily realizing it because it’s increasingly embedded in tools we’re already using.

Sheridan: There’s still a lot of anxiety about AI, particularly among younger people who are wondering what it means for their careers. How do you think about that?

Kessler: Let’s not use AI as the word. Let’s use technology, because that’s really what it is — and it’s what it has always been.

When I look at what I was doing 40 years ago when I started versus what an entry-level person is doing today, it doesn’t even resemble it because of technology. The next phase happens to be AI, but technology has always been there and it has always been evolving.

I’m not in the camp that says AI is going to take over everything. We need people. We need people who can understand what’s coming out of the technology, determine whether it makes sense and translate that data so a client or investor understands what it means.

We also need technology because we’re at the beginning of a demographic cliff in the United States, with a projected decline in high school graduates. We’re going to have a smaller group of people to hire from, and we still want to attract the best and brightest.

What we need people to do is changing. The traditional pyramid is rising. I think that’s creating some confusion and anxiety in the marketplace.

Sheridan: Were there any specific experiences from your year as AICPA chair that stand out?

Kessler: I had opportunities to meet with women in other countries, some virtually and some in person. We had roundtable conversations with women in Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Africa and China.

These women are incredibly strong and tenacious. Their societies are different from the United States, and they’re overcoming societal barriers. Hearing what they’re dealing with and thinking about how an association can support women in our field was eye-opening. Those roundtables are absolutely at the top of my list.

The other thing was interacting with students. Some of the questions they asked, I thought, “I never would have thought of that when I was in college.” Their passion for the future was impressive.

And the third was going to where people are from and understanding their culture. When they comment on something now, I have a different context for understanding what they mean.

Those really stand out as great experiences and great life lessons.

Sheridan: You met people from firms and organizations of every size — educators, regulators, state societies, business leaders and others. What seemed to unite everyone regardless of where they sit in the profession?

Kessler: What fascinated me at the AICPA Council meetings was hearing the feedback around our foundation.

The non-negotiables are trust, ethics, integrity and quality. That was so prevalent. People were united around the idea that these are things we do not sacrifice whatsoever as a profession.

It was almost heartwarming to hear. The things you were taught in college mean even more today than they did when we were in college.

Especially today, when you can scroll through social media and wonder whether to believe something or not, those things are critical.

Sheridan: What did you learn about yourself this year that you didn’t know when you started?

Kessler: I always suspected I was an introvert. I absolutely am an introvert.

What I didn’t realize was how much energy it takes for me to overcome that. At the end of a long day, I’d be completely wiped out.

I try to point that out when I speak to students. I’m an introvert, and early in my career I couldn’t sleep the night before I had to speak publicly. I was a wreck. But you can overcome that. It just takes more from you.

I was very deliberate about building decompression time into my calendar so I could recharge. Sometimes it might have to be in the middle of the day. I’d skip out for an hour or two, recharge and come back completely fine. I learned that I just have to build that time in.

Sheridan: If you could send a message from today back to the profession of 10 years ago, what would surprise people most about where we are now?

Kessler: I think people would be surprised that private equity is as prevalent as it is. They’d be surprised by how much technology has changed what we do, and they’d be surprised by how much disruption is happening in our world.

What we thought was disruption then was really nothing compared with what we’re seeing now. It almost seems normal.

The speed of change and how much technology has advanced really is amazing. But we also have to acknowledge that we’re human beings, and there’s only so much we can absorb at once.

Sheridan: Private equity has become a huge topic in the profession. What conversations are taking place at the national level?

Kessler: It is a topic of conversation at AICPA board meetings. The AICPA has undertaken an initiative to educate people about alternative practice structures and what they mean. It’s also looking at codes of conduct and independence rules because business models have changed and those rules need to be updated.

There are also conversations with private equity firms about concerns around quality and independence. These firms have made large investments in organizations, and they want a return. Why would they do anything that jeopardizes quality and therefore impacts the value of an organization they’ve invested in?

That doesn’t mean there isn’t pressure within certain firms. There can be, and different individuals perceive pressure differently. So it’s something that needs to continue to be monitored.

The AICPA will also be taking additional steps with peer review and reviewing some of the work of peer review firms that are private equity-backed. There will be an extra oversight step in the peer review process for firms that have private equity.

Sheridan: Now that you’ve handed the gavel to Jan Lewis, what gives you the greatest confidence about the profession’s future? What do you hope we don’t lose sight of?

Kessler: That we’re all in this together. We really are, and I think we’ve come a long way toward that point. There are certainly differences — there always will be — but I feel like there’s a little more unity in the profession than there was two years ago. We have a great opportunity to continue moving that forward.

I think greater transparency from the AICPA has been welcomed by members, state societies, regulators and others.

Strategically, Rise2040 gives us a way to ask: What are association members telling us they need, and what are the things we need to be doing for them?

The Profession-Ready Initiative is one example. We were hearing about the need for it and knew that was a next step, and Rise2040 validated it.

There’s a lot of momentum, excitement and energy around moving all of this forward — and working closely with state CPA societies will be an important part of that.