The biggest force shaping graduate hiring in the U.K. remains a familiar one: cost control.
Sixty-four percent of the U.K. CFOs working in FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies surveyed by Deloitte said broader business cost-control efforts will reduce graduate hiring over the next 12 months, making it the biggest factor weighing on recruitment plans. The findings come from Deloitte's latest CFO Survey of U.K.-based finance chiefs.
The survey suggests AI is beginning to reshape workforce planning, but many organizations are still making hiring decisions primarily through tighter budgets and cost discipline. Artificial intelligence ranked as the second biggest “dampener of demand” for new graduate hires, selected by 47% of respondents, followed by outsourcing at 33%.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they expect AI to materially improve business performance, while 93% expect investment in digital technology to increase over the next 12 months.
Graduate recruitment has long served as the CFO profession's proving ground. Many finance leaders began their careers in public accounting, where years working in backwards-looking functions like auditing cash and testing controls helped build the technical instincts that ultimately allowed them to become forward-looking finance leaders.
If fewer graduates are hired into the profession today, the effects could extend well beyond accounting firms and into corporate finance departments for years to come.
Cost discipline is still driving hiring decisions
The survey arrives as finance leaders elsewhere report feeling somewhat more confident about the broader economy. Less than half of respondents said financial and economic uncertainty remains high, below the post-pandemic average according to Deloitte. Concerns about geopolitics, while still the highest-ranked external risk facing businesses, also eased compared with the previous quarter.
Despite improving sentiment, finance leaders continue prioritizing cost control. That combination suggests companies are becoming more comfortable with the external environment while remaining cautious about expanding headcount.
The results also add another data point to a broader shift already underway across the accounting profession: the drastic reduction of entry-level roles.
Last year, PwC confirmed plans to reduce U.S. campus hiring for tax and assurance associates after Business Insider obtained part of an internal presentation outlining the firm's recruitment plans. PwC said the decision reflected historically low attrition and "the rapid pace of technological change" reshaping client work and workforce needs.
More recently, KPMG reduced staffing in parts of its U.S. advisory business and audit practice while saying it was aligning the "size, shape and skills" of its workforce to meet changing client demand, as previously reported by CFO Dive.
AI is changing the work graduates perform
Artificial intelligence was not the leading reason CFOs expect graduate hiring to decline, but it remains an increasingly important influence on how finance organizations think about talent.
Earlier this month, Melanie Proffitt, the president of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, a global professional body representing accountants and finance professionals in 180 countries including the U.K., told CFO.com in an interview that many of the routine assignments traditionally performed by junior accountants are likely to disappear as AI becomes more deeply embedded throughout finance organizations.
"Those routine tasks that perhaps were the entry-level jobs in those environments are going to be replaced by technology," Proffitt said. "I think you're going to see much more emphasis on value creation and how accountants demonstrate the value they add to organizations."
Those comments echo questions CFO.com raised last year after PwC's lack-of-hiring announcement. As automation, outsourcing and AI assume more repetitive accounting work, young professionals may spend less time building technical skills through manual work and more time reviewing AI outputs and advising the business.
Rather than viewing that shift as a threat, Proffitt believes it reflects the changing role of the profession. "People step off, take a career break, move sideways into a different role and then step back on," she said. "It's no longer a linear progression."
To reflect those changing expectations, ACCA is redesigning its professional qualification around a more flexible model that allows candidates to earn credentials throughout their careers rather than following a rigid sequence. "The traditional nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday model is changing, and businesses need to recognize that," Proffitt said.
A talent pipeline under pressure
The survey arrives as governments, employers and professional organizations grapple with how to strengthen the accounting profession's long-term talent pipeline.
Last week, CFO.com reported that the U.K. government will require CFOs at larger colleges offering further education programs to hold a recognized professional accountancy qualification beginning in August 2027. The policy reinforces the importance regulators continue to place on accounting expertise even as technology changes how finance work is performed.
In her interview, Proffitt argued that professional qualifications continue to provide value long after accountants move into executive leadership because they demonstrate ethical accountability and a commitment to lifelong learning.
"If you employed me to work in your organization as your CFO, you know I have a higher level of ethics in terms of consequences than someone who's not bound by that code of conduct," she said.
She also pointed to continuing professional development requirements as another advantage. "Maintaining your membership demonstrates continuous professional development, a continuous learning mindset, and integrity and trust," Proffitt said. "I think, in today's world, trust is really key."
The profession is also contending with changing career expectations as earlier this month, new Deloitte research showed younger professionals in New Zealand are becoming increasingly selective about career choices. Although most Gen Z and millennial respondents said they hope to become leaders someday, relatively few identified leadership as their primary career objective. Financial independence, job security, workplace flexibility and work-life balance ranked among their highest priorities.
Those responses suggest the traditional public accounting career model is evolving alongside broader workplace changes. Public accounting, alongside numerous other industries, has historically relied on demanding early-career experiences to develop future finance leaders, but nowadays younger professionals increasingly appear to be evaluating those trade-offs differently.
Proffitt believes employers that recognize those changing expectations will have an advantage. "The businesses that recognize the changing ways of work and the changing ambitions of the talent coming through will be the ones that compete successfully," she said.
Deloitte’s survey included 58 CFOs and group finance directors from major U.K. companies, including FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 firms. Responses were collected between July 1-13, 2026.
