Professor Michael Donohoe believes the next generation of accountants will have “investigator DNA” and a strategic mindset.

“With the growing emphasis on business analytics, our students are becoming investigators who ask big questions, use data, and state of the art statistical methods to investigate those questions in a meaningful way,” said Donohoe, the RC Evans Data Analytics Fellow and PwC Faculty Fellow who was recently named head of the Gies’ Department of Accountancy. “There’s commentary out there that suggests artificial intelligence and machine learning will eventually replace accountants. I don’t subscribe to that view. But I do believe the accountant mindset needs to shift further from number crunching to strategic advice. We work hard to train our graduates to deliver an advanced level of professional service and business analysis.”