The roles of PwC graduates are under threat from artificial intelligence, the head of an accounting firm says

The head of accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers told the BBC that the growth of artificial intelligence could eventually lead to fewer entry-level graduates being employed.

However, global CEO Mohammed Kandi said that AI was not behind the recent job cuts at the company, adding that the company did need to hire hundreds of new AI engineers but was struggling to find them.

But some observers say the same technology threatens thousands of small jobs in the professional services industry.

Speaking on the sidelines of a business summit in Singapore, Candy also said big changes in the global economy, such as sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, have been good for the firm’s consulting business.

He also addressed the company’s suspension in China last year due to its work at collapsed real estate giant Evergrande, promising that the same mistakes “will not happen again.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers is headquartered in London and is one of the Big Four accounting firms. It provides a range of services, such as financial auditing, consulting and tax advice, to business clients around the world.

According to Mr. Candy, advising them on how to integrate AI into their operations will be at the heart of the company’s future business strategy, even as the rapidly advancing technology impacts its hiring plans.

Companies that previously hired PwC consultants to sift through data and documents can now use AI models instead, turning weeks of expensive work into mere minutes.

Every year, the company hires thousands of new graduates into entry-level positions – including 1,300 in the UK and 3,200 in the US last year – but it recently abandoned long-term plans to continue growing its headcount.

In 2021, PwC said it wanted to hire 100,000 people over five years, but Candy said that would no longer be possible.

“When we made plans to hire that many people, the world looked very different,” he said.

“Now we have artificial intelligence. We want to hire, but I don’t know if it will be the same level of people we hire — it will be a different group of people.”

Last year, PwC cut more than 5,600 jobs across its global operations.

The head of the company’s UK business has previously spoken about reducing graduate recruitment, admitting that AI is “definitely reshaping roles”.

However, on a global level, Candy insisted that the AI ​​boom was an “exciting time” to create new job opportunities.

“We’re looking for hundreds and hundreds of engineers today to help us drive our AI agenda, but we can’t find them,” he said.

Businesses around the world may face challenges adapting to artificial intelligence, but in the meantime PwC appears to have benefited from broader uncertainty in the global economy, fueled largely by President Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs.

“We are receiving a lot of calls from many companies around the world asking us how to deal with the current environment,” Candy said.

“It’s been good for us. We need to stay relevant to our customers and we need to be in these discussions, and that’s what we’re doing.”

However, the company took a major hit to its reputation last year, when… Chinese authorities suspended PricewaterhouseCoopers for six months Because of her work at the collapsed real estate giant Evergrande.

The company went bankrupt after accumulating debts of more than $300bn (£230bn) and was at the heart of a devastating housing crisis that continues to wreak havoc on lives and livelihoods in China.

The country’s securities regulator found that PricewaterhouseCoopers, as auditor, had “covered up and even condoned” the financial fraud at Evergrande.

Candy, whose tenure as global president began after Evergrande’s bankruptcy, said PwC no longer faces any restrictions in China.

“Let me tell you – we have changed many of our employees, implemented new quality management systems and introduced new governance systems,” he said.

“My focus was to make sure something like this never happened again.”