AICPA AI Symposium: Experts Reveal Future of Accounting

Mark Koziel, CPA, the New President and CEO of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)

An interview with Mark Koziel, discussing his new role and responsibilities at the AICPA.

The Importance of Self-Awareness and Servant Leadership for CFOs

An analysis of the importance of self-awareness and servant leadership for CFOs, including the role of internal development in making a great finance leader.

Ted Delgado, CPA, and Summer Redmon, CPA, on the AICPA & CIMA CFO Conference

A summary of the discussion on the AICPA & CIMA CFO Conference, including top-of-mind issues for finance leaders and the conference agenda.

The Value of International Women’s Day to One AICPA & CIMA Leader

An interview with Lisa Simpson, CPA, CGMA, AICPA & CIMA’s vice president–Firm Services, discussing International Women’s Day and its significance.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA, on the 50th Anniversary of Microsoft

A discussion on the impact of Microsoft on the profession, business, and society as a whole, including a look back at the company’s history and evolution.

• The panel had an animated discussion on private equity’s impact on the profession, and on firms.

• The AICPA & CIMA CFO Conference begins April 23 in La Quinta, Calif.

Practical Implications and Analysis

The importance of self-awareness and servant leadership for CFOs, including the role of internal development in making a great finance leader.

• Redmon’s explanation of a former boss referring to herself as “CFO-plus.”

• Delgado’s summary of a session on navigating business slowdowns.

• Highlights of other topics and panel discussions at the conference.

The Future of the Accounting Profession

A conclusion on the implications of the symposium’s discussions on the accounting profession, including the role of technology, leadership, and education in shaping the future of the industry.

• The value of International Women’s Day to one AICPA & CIMA leader.

• The importance of self-awareness and servant leadership for CFOs.

— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at [email protected].

Transcript

SPEAKERS: Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA, Randy Johnston

Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA: 00:00 Randy, welcome to the accounting Technology Lab, sponsored by CPA practice advisor. With your host, Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, welcome Randy Johnston 00:11 to the accounting Technology Lab. I’m Randy Johnston with my co-host, Brian Tankersley, we’ve got a fun topic for you today. We’re going to take a look back. And we don’t often wax poetic nowadays, but it is Microsoft’s 50th anniversary that was actually officially on Friday, April 4 of 2025 was the 50th anniversary, and we thought it would be informative, frankly, to just take a moment and look back at what’s happened with Microsoft so as you think about the company, obviously, many of you use them for your productivity suite with Microsoft Office, and you have your operating system of Windows, and even if you’re a Mac user, you’re probably using Microsoft Office as well, besides many of the other tools that they have. But, you know, it has been a very interesting ride. Microsoft’s only had three CEOs this entire time, and they were together on that Friday the fourth but as we start thinking about, you know, the way this has evolved from a, you know, very humble tool development company, if you would. It is fascinating to, you know, reflect on this now Paul Allen, Bill Gates, you know, obviously Paul has passed away, and many of the founding fathers of computing are passing away at this point, or have retired out. But the vision of what could be done is pretty stunning in my mind. So, you know, I think that said I’m going to go to the way, way back machine with you for just a minute, and we’re going to bring Brian with me, so we’re going back in time. Yeah, and it turns out we’re entering the Twilight Zone for just a minute. Because, you know, it turns out I used the very first copies of DOS. I used some of the very earliest copies of Microsoft BASIC. I actually my first textbook that I wrote was basic using micros. So again, I was around the language stuff from the early on, and, of course, I was a language computer science specialist of the day, so all of the big things like basic and, you know, headline news lately, with COBOL, with the Social Security Administration and Lisp, because of AI, having wrote my first AI programs in Lisp 50 years ago. Again, I was an old, hardcore programmer, and I could write in any language of the day. So I hung with a lot of these techie people as they were developing this stuff, and had the good privilege of getting the first IBM PC in Kansas, which ran DOS and peach tree and BPM accounting software. At the time, it was really a fun thing to do. Well, it turns out, Mike no Brian F. Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA 03:08 BP, VPM accounting software, that’s the, that’s the group out of Pensacola. That was CPA as that was Mark Fenimore and everything. Randy Johnston 03:15 No, I might, you might have misheard me, Brian, that was VPM, which was in Linux, but was out of Texas. And there were a number of companies out of Texas that ran some beautiful stuff, as it turns out, for accounting software. But many of those didn’t actually, you know, stay the course for a long time. Well, you know, when you look back to the, you know, 1981 release of the IBM PC, DOS was king, and it took a while for us to get to Windows two oh and three oh and actually, Windows one oh and so, it turns out windows one oh release, you know, was still back in the dark ages, in the 80s, and it turns out that they were competing heavily against Apple with Lisa and other pieces a