As the accounting profession explores the skills needed for the aspiring and early career CPAs through the Profession Ready Initiative, one finding is emerging with remarkable consistency: communication keeps rising to the top of employer conversations about workforce readiness.
What employers are describing is the ability to choose the right communication channel, engage directly with people, and confidently participate in conversations that move work forward.
Across public accounting, business and industry, government, nonprofits, and specialty practice areas, employers repeatedly emphasized that the challenge is communication judgment. The strongest performers, employers suggested, recognize when a situation requires richer human interaction rather than an email message in someone's inbox, for example.
Communication and critical thinking go hand in hand
Another important theme emerging from the Profession Ready research: employers rarely discussed communication as a standalone skill. Instead, they linked it directly to critical thinking, problem-solving, initiative, professional judgment, and resourcefulness.
When professionals struggle to identify the right questions, distinguish important from unimportant information, or summarize findings clearly, communication becomes a visible challenge. The underlying issue is often critical thinking.
In other words, communication is not simply about delivering information. It is about making sense of information first.
Beyond communication: a confidence gap
Many employers who participated in Profession Ready activities described talented, capable early-career professionals who hesitate to contribute. This may be less a communication gap than a confidence gap.
They spoke about reluctance to ask questions, anxiety around client conversations, discomfort presenting ideas, and concern about making mistakes in front of colleagues or leaders. In some cases, educators described students who completed excellent preparatory work but remained silent when practitioners visited the classroom.
Today's workplace expects forms of communication that many emerging professionals have had fewer opportunities to practice, particularly in an era shaped by digital interaction, remote work, and rapidly changing technology.
While communication and critical thinking continue to stand out as premium capabilities for career acceleration, the scope goes far beyond writing and speaking. It includes confidence, relationship building, professional judgment, and the willingness to contribute ideas even when you don't have all the answers.
That willingness to engage is increasingly viewed as a professional skill in its own right.
Why writing still matters in the age of AI
Communication concerns were not limited to speaking. Professional writing surfaced frequently in discussions as a critical capability. Employers highlighted the importance of:
Writing clear, professional emails
Adapting tone to different audiences
Summarizing information effectively
Synthesizing complex issues
Telling a coherent story vs. reporting facts
This is especially noteworthy because AI can now generate draft communications in seconds. Yet employers did not describe AI as reducing the need for communication skills. If anything, they suggested the opposite.
Individuals still need to exercise professional judgement to know what matters, what their audience needs to understand, and whether an AI-generated response makes sense. The future communication challenge may not be writing alongside AI. It may be explaining, validating, and translating AI-generated insights for human decisionmakers.
Relationship building remains a business skill
Technology continues to change how work gets done, but accounting remains fundamentally relationship driven. Employers repeatedly emphasized the importance of building trust, maintaining professional relationships, networking, and developing rapport with clients and colleagues.
Skills once assumed to develop naturally are increasingly being taught intentionally. Some organizations are now actively training professionals in conversation skills and relationship-building techniques because these capabilities are viewed as essential business competencies.
Solutions on the way
Validating the early-career skill gaps is important; addressing them is critical. The Profession Ready Initiative will do that in a number of ways. The coming months will bring educator resources and a skills and competency framework.
And in 2027, the AICPA will release innovative learning resources developed in collaboration with leading accounting firms and a global leader in learning design. Among the first products to be released is one designed to help emerging talent build communication confidence through open conversations with an AI coach and practicing in immersive simulations and scenarios.
For the latest information, visit aicpa-cima.com/professionready.