What AI is best at is precisely the kind of work that no one wants to do. In the financial field, this has become a problem.

For decades, junior accountants have learned the business by reconciling accounts, manually entering data, and enduring the end-of-month closing process. Although these tasks are tedious, they have helped them understand the mechanics of financial operations. Today, many of these tasks can be automated, but doing so also eliminates a crucial stage in the training process for future financial leaders.

The Chief Financial Officer of London Payments Company GoCardless, Catherine Birkett, stated: "I am really worried about how the next generation of controllers, financial directors, and ultimately CFO will learn, as these entry-level positions are no longer what they used to be." She believes that an understanding of data can help financial professionals make better use of AI tools, and such capabilities are often developed in junior financial positions.

The board of directors of headhunting firm Odgers and the person in charge of business at CFO, Mark Freebairn, stated: "A year ago, the financial director was not sure what changes AI would bring. Now, everyone is using it." He expects that AI will eventually automate most of the tasks in financial functions and added, "If it hasn't replaced all the work yet, it will sooner or later."

Diamond-shaped structure

With the increase in automated use, entry-level financial positions are decreasing. Last year, PwC reduced its recruitment of entry-level employees by 200 in the UK, and a survey by Oliver Wyman Forum in conjunction with the New York Stock Exchange shows that nearly two-thirds of CFO expect that the proportion of junior positions in their financial teams will decline over the next three years.

Birkett said, 'Entry-level financial positions are definitely going to decrease. The remaining positions will be reserved for candidates with stronger capabilities, who are quite different from accountants 30 years ago.'

As companies seek to reduce the recruitment of junior staff in finance, the traditional pyramid structure is changing. Freebairn indicates that many firms are shifting towards a "diamond-shaped" structure, which features more middle-level financial personnel and fewer trainees. However, this also brings new challenges to the industry.

“If you want 100 managers but only need 2 trainees, then what are you going to do when those managers retire and you only have 2 people left to take their places?” he asked. The usual answer is to poach from competitors. “If everyone is building a diamond-shaped management structure,” Freebairn added, “then there will be no one left to poach.”

Birkett said, 'No one has really figured this out yet.' She added that the four major accounting firms recruit tens of thousands of graduates every year, and they must also be facing the same challenges.

As there are fewer trainees at the starting point, in the future when companies are looking for CFO, the list of candidates may be even thinner. At a time when this change is occurring, the board of directors is already struggling to fill this position. The Russell Reynolds's Global CFO Turnover Index 2025 Report shows that the turnover rate has reached a record high, and many companies are not prepared for such high personnel mobility – only 16% of financial directors stated that their companies have proactive succession plans.

Adecco Group President Christophe Catoir warns that experienced professionals should not be allowed to "pull up the drawbridge behind them." He says that the most affected will be young people who lack professional networks or the ability to undertake unpaid work. This could undermine the progress made in diversity within the financial sector. "Technological advancements should be used to help the workforce, not to become another obstacle to social mobility."

Not all financial companies are cutting back on junior positions. Amsterdam Digital Bank Bunq's CFO Brian Spaans is still recruiting graduates and views AI as "an opportunity to cultivate more outstanding financial professionals." He stated that after machines handle repetitive tasks, graduates can start doing analysis earlier.

Rewrite the interview

The increased use of AI in financial functions is also affecting the skills considered when companies recruit entry-level talent.

In the past, during the final round of testing, junior finance candidates would be given a dataset and a Excel. Now, Birkett provides candidates with a AI model and asks them to analyze the data and create a presentation. The focus is on whether they will accept the first answer given or if they will continue to ask follow-up questions and dig deeper. She said, "In the field of finance, the absolutely worst thing is when people simply accept whatever is told to them without question."

Catoir warns that one should not assume that digital natives inherently possess the ability to collaborate with AI. "Being familiar with technology does not necessarily mean that you know how to use it effectively."

For Freebairn, the widespread adoption of AI has instead made technical capabilities even more important. "The technical skills required for AI are more than ever before," he said, "Someone always needs to know when the machine is making a mistake."

GoCardless recruits graduates from any professional backgrounds, but still encourages them to obtain accounting qualifications and even covers the costs of the exams for them.

Bunq goes a step further by abandoning the use of resumes altogether. Applicants must complete a seven-step process that includes personality tests and abstract reasoning tests. Those who pass the screening will be invited to spend a day at the bank's offices, where they will undergo AI proficiency tests as well as computational ability tests.

Spaans said that the company wants to assess whether candidates can find the information needed to complete tasks and apply that information correctly. One of his junior regulatory experts comes from the field of data analysis in sales. “If we still screened resumes in the traditional way, we probably wouldn’t give them a second glance,” he said. “What we’re looking for is not where a person has worked in the past, but how they think.”

Learn this craft.

Recruitment is only half the battle. Technical knowledge can be taught and tested, but those skills that Freebairn values most, such as influencing others, persuading others, and negotiating, cannot be acquired solely through classroom learning. "If there are no developmental positions, how can you cultivate these abilities? Some experiences can only be gained on the job: negotiating the number of T-shirts to purchase with the purchasing director, making mistakes, and then doing better next time."

As AI has taken away some of the opportunities for junior accountants to hone these skills, Birkett says, "We have to accept that it will take junior employees longer to prove their value." In practice, this means allowing junior employees to attend meetings as observers, watch how their colleagues analyze data, be present when decisions are actually made, and gain experience across different departments. It may also mean continuing to perform some manual reconciliation tasks manually.

At Bunq, junior employees still need to perform reconciliation to verify that the data is consistent with bank records, and they also need to document the process for auditors and regulatory authorities to review.

Spaans said, "You cannot automate a process that you don't understand." AI speeds up the work process, but it doesn't eliminate the need to understand it. In fact, it even raises the barrier, because when the results come more quickly, the responsibility for judging whether those results are correct falls more directly on the person who built it.

Spaans believes that this approach is effective. Employees in the finance and capital management team typically stay for an average of three to four years. “In a field where the turnover of junior employees is a known issue, this indicates that the job is worth staying for,” he added.

Bunq's approach to recruitment and training is helping the company build a solid financial talent pipeline. Those companies that have not yet found solutions, or those that simply cut back on junior positions, may face more difficult problems when it comes time to find their next CFO.