<b>Digital Transformation in Accounting and Financial Consultancy Firms and the Future of Accounting Jobs</b>

Purpose. This paper examines how digital transformation is reshaping accounting and financial consultancy firms and, in turn, redefining the future of accounting jobs. It integrates evidence on cloud accounting, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), blockchain, and advanced data analytics with a primary, multi-region empirical study of 412 accounting professionals and twelve in-depth interviews. Design/methodology/approach. A mixed-methods sequential design was adopted. A structured online survey (administered between September 2025 and February 2026) measured twelve latent constructs spanning digital adoption, productivity, job redesign, displacement anxiety, upskilling intention, advisory orientation, and ethical concerns. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation, ordinary-least-squares regression, and moderation tests in SPSS and Stata. Twelve semi-structured interviews with senior practitioners were thematically coded to triangulate findings. Findings. Digital adoption intensity is a strong, positive predictor of perceived productivity (β = .42, p &lt; .001) and advisory orientation (β = .36, p &lt; .001). Cloud accounting and data analytics show the highest adoption maturity (M = 3.80 and 3.30 respectively, on a 1–5 scale); AI/ML adoption is rising rapidly but uneven; blockchain remains embryonic. Job displacement anxiety is moderate and concentrated in junior and routine roles, while upskilling intention is uniformly high. The data support a profession-wide pivot from compliance-centric to advisory-centric work, with new hybrid job archetypes such as the accounting data scientist, AI audit specialist, and ESG reporting lead emerging across all firm-size bands and regions. Originality/value. The study contributes one of the largest cross-regional empirical pictures of digital transformation in the accounting profession published in the 2020–2026 window. It integrates technology adoption, work-design, and labour-market lenses into a single conceptual model, validates it on primary data, and translates the findings into a forward-looking taxonomy of accounting jobs through 2030. Implications are drawn for firm leaders, regulators, educators, and accounting professionals navigating the AI-augmented profession.