AI may mean fewer consultants and accountants — at least at PwC.
Paul Griggs, the Big Four firm’s US senior partner and CEO, said PwC hired fewer consultants and accountants this year than it did two years ago. He expects that trend to continue as the firm hires more data scientists, engineers, and machine learning experts.
That doesn’t mean Griggs feels pessimistic about the future of consultants in the AI era.
The Big Four executive said he has three kids, one who has been in the workforce for about a year and two who are still in college. Two of them may go into accounting, he said, and he’s supportive of this plan.
Griggs said that anyone who has worked inside a professional services firm can see that the core work in accounting, consulting, and finance hasn’t fundamentally changed.
He pointed to PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer report, which analyzed more than a billion job postings worldwide to examine how AI is reshaping skills and occupations.
The report found that professional services roles are among the fastest-evolving. It also found that jobs where AI requires more human expertise are growing twice as fast as roles where AI is making it easier for non-experts to perform, with wages in those occupations rising 42% faster since 2021.
In general, Griggs said AI creates value, which drives growth, and in turn creates demand for people, technology, and other solutions. The CEO said that PwC has the strongest pipeline of new business it’s seen in the firm’s history.
“I think this is the biggest opportunity we’ve ever had,” Griggs said.
What to study
While consultants and accountants aren’t disappearing, AI is reshaping the skills those jobs require. Griggs said PwC is hiring more people from nontraditional backgrounds and expects to see more liberal arts majors in consulting and other business roles because AI can amplify the need for “broad knowledge.”
With that in mind, the CEO said he’s a “big believer” in master’s degrees and would support his kids going to MBA programs.
“I would feel very comfortable encouraging any of my three kids to pursue further education if it’s something that they were interested in,” Griggs said.
He said both MBA programs and liberal arts degrees cultivate continuous learners who are curious, which is a quality he prioritizes.
“Those MBA programs, in so many ways, create the space for the student to go figure out how to research and discover, and not just get through the core coursework,” Griggs said.
Griggs said PwC plans to continue recruiting from MBA and other master’s programs and maintains partnerships with several universities.
Last year, for example, the firm designed a leadership program with Harvard Business School called RevUp, and about 4,000 partners took a course on leading in the AI era.
The Big Four firm also developed an AI training program at Wharton with professor Ethan Mollick, which focuses on how partners can use tools commercially and understand how AI is affecting clients, Griggs said.
