In a region where finance has long been synonymous with precision, compliance, and control, a quiet revolution is unfolding. Artificial intelligence is not replacing the finance function—it is redefining it.
Nowhere is this shift more acute than across Southeast and Northeast Asia, where universities scramble to modernise curricula and finance professionals navigate the half-life of their own expertise.
As Andrew Harding, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), puts it: “There has never ever been a better time to be a management accountant.” But this optimism comes with a stark caveat—only for those ready to embrace change.
Curriculum at a crossroads
The pace of technological change has outstripped traditional academic cycles. Harding notes that “many university programs need to go through all sorts of approvals… and that means they can often not keep up with the pace of change.”
This lag has real-world consequences. “I’ve spoken to universities in China who are saying our graduates weren’t prepared for the job market,” he observes, highlighting a regional urgency to pivot from traditional accounting toward strategic, forward-looking management accounting.
CIMA has responded swiftly. “We revised [our curriculum] in May of this year (2025), and we included Gen AI at that point,” Harding explains. Unlike rigid academic structures, CIMA’s case-study-based assessment model allows new competencies—like AI fluency—to be integrated rapidly.
This agility is increasingly vital as employers across Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China seek professionals equipped for today’s finance roles, not yesterday’s.
AI: Catalyst, not replacement
Contrary to common fears, Harding sees AI as an enabler rather than a threat—particularly within management accounting. “Unlike, say, auditing or tax, where artificial intelligence can replace the worker, management accounting isn’t rules-based. So, it’s something which AI can’t replicate,” he clarifies.
Instead, AI empowers finance professionals to “build better pictures of the future” and enhance strategic decision-making.
This distinction is critical for finance teams in Asia, where transactional task automation is already widespread. The opportunity lies in higher-value roles: interpreting data, modelling scenarios, and advising on strategy.
As Harding succinctly warns: “My advice to them is to learn to use AI, and it won’t take your job. It will change your job. If you don’t learn to use AI, then an accountant who can use AI will take your job.”
His warning is echoed by broader industry sentiment. A Gartner survey of over 200 CFOs in August 2025 found that only 36% feel confident in their ability to drive enterprise AI impact, and just 44% are confident about accelerating AI use in finance.
This confidence gap underscores Harding’s call for urgent upskilling—especially as CFOs simultaneously prioritise cost optimisation (56%) and improved forecasting (51%) heading into 2026.
The new finance talent profile
Employers, too, must recalibrate their expectations. Harding urges HR and CFOs alike to seek “people who are curious, open-minded, and want a broad business career.”
The era of the “traditional old-school accountant” focused on control is over. Today’s finance professional must be “an active partner in the business, someone who wants to create value” and understands that “sustainability… is about long-term business success.”
This evolution is mirrored in CIMA’s partnerships with universities across Asia, as Harding reveals. Through its Finance Leadership Programme—a virtual learning platform—students graduate not only with degrees but also with professional competencies aligned to market needs.
“It gives them that edge when they go into the job market,” Harding notes, bridging the gap between academia and industry.
Continuous learning as survival
At the 2025 FutureCFO Conference in Jakarta, professional development opportunities was cited by 39% of delegates asked to identify the most critical factor for attracting and retaining finance talent in 2025. A sentiment echoed at the conference series in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
For incumbent finance professionals, the stakes are equally high. Harding cites a sobering statistic: “The half-life of a skill today is reckoned to be four years.” In practical terms, “half of what you knew [in December 2020] is irrelevant today.” This reality demands a shift from episodic certification to perpetual upskilling.
His advice? “Take a skills inventory, look at what you’re going to need over the next five years and start forgetting some of that old stuff… start learning some of those new things—be that sustainability, ESG, artificial intelligence, other quantitative and qualitative data techniques.”
Crucially, this learning must be “short, sharp learning interventions,” reflecting the transient relevance of any single skill set.
He illustrates this with an anecdote: “I meet so many finance professionals… they’ll tell me this weekend I’m going to do an online program… maybe just two or three months while we do the program. That’s how I invest my time.”
This micro-learning mindset is fast becoming the norm among forward-looking CFOs in Asia—especially as Gartner notes that only 42% of CFOs are confident in their ability to hire and retain digital finance talent, making internal upskilling not just strategic but essential.
Reimagining the profession’s narrative
At FutureCFO conferences and in roundtable discussions with senior finance practitioners a recurring issue is the declining pool of job-ready business and accounting graduates entering the industry, particularly in AI, ESG and data-driven decision-making.
To attract new talent, rather than just depending on the graduates that come out of academia, perhaps the onus is on the profession to tell better stories. Harding advocates showcasing “real examples” from young professionals— “someone who’s 26 years old… who you can identify with.” Too often, parental and societal perceptions of finance remain frozen in the past.
“Finance is not what it was 20 years ago,” he insists. “The wonderful thing is now people coming into the profession do make a difference, like they never ever have done before.”
CIMA’s recent CGMA Week exemplifies this approach, spotlighting dynamic career journeys shaped by technology, strategy, and impact—far removed from the stereotype of number-crunching in the back office.
Looking ahead
As businesses across Asia confront volatility—from trade tensions to climate risks—the finance function is emerging as the nerve centre of resilience. The AICPA & CIMA Business Resilience Toolkit underscores this, positioning finance leaders as “well positioned to steer your organisation through adversity.”
But resilience isn’t passive endurance; it’s active reinvention. And in 2026, that reinvention will be led by finance professionals who wield AI not as a threat, but as their most potent strategic ally.
