KPMG US is piloting a new intern program focused less on technical skills and more on critical thinking

• KPMG US is shifting intern training to focus on AI-era skills like judgment and problem-solving.
• Interns at its Lakehouse facility will engage in critical-thinking exercises and team competitions.
• The pilot program is for audit interns and will replace a focus on technical skills at Lakehouse.

KPMG US is revamping intern training to emphasize judgment and problem-solving in the AI era.

In a pilot program, the firm plans to have its audit interns at its KPMG Lakehouse training facility in Florida focus less on technical aspects of the profession and more on critical thinking, data analysis, and drawing conclusions, Tim Walsh, the company's US chair and CEO, told Business Insider.

"It will all be about being able to analyze output, make determinations on what to do next," and how to take those conclusions to a client, he said.

Unlike in past years, Walsh said, the audit program at Lakehouse won't focus on the skills interns would have learned in their college coursework.

Instead, the program will emphasize what the company calls "human-centric" skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and team leadership.

The new model reflects what KPMG US says are the capabilities that increasingly distinguish top performers: judgment, adaptability, and the ability to work through ambiguous problems with other people.

The company expects to have about 1,000 audit interns this summer.

Critical-thinking simulations

Walsh said that the change reflects a "huge push" within KPMG US and among clients to foster human connection at a time when tech is advancing faster than ever.

It also comes during a broader reckoning across consulting and other professional services. Firms are rapidly adopting AI tools that can handle many routine analytical tasks that once fell to junior employees. That shift has fueled both experimentation inside firms and anxiety among some white-collar workers about how their roles might change — or disappear.

Under the program, interns will participate in critical-thinking simulations, team-based competitions aligned with the company's values, and structured networking and communication workshops.

That will include a focus on interpreting and applying what AI tools produce. Yet it's not about who can write the best prompts, a spokesperson said.

Instead, the company is testing whether interns use AI as an input, apply judgment, and arrive at a sound outcome for a client.

Interns' time at Lakehouse

Historically, KPMG's Lakehouse internship program leaned more toward technical instruction, screening, and early specialization.

At an intern training at Lakehouse in June, the focus was on using the firm's AI-powered audit platform, KPMG Clara, for specific auditing tasks, such as analyzing financial statements and the underlying financial data, Business Insider previously reported.

That training will now largely take place at local offices at the start of internships.

Typically, interns spend about three days at Lakehouse, which offers an 18-hole putting green, bars, and classrooms on a verdant campus near Orlando. They return to regional offices to complete their internships.

In 2025, KPMG had about 2,200 summer interns overall, drawn from more than 42,000 applicants.

In any case, what early-career staffers at KPMG US do will be different from what Walsh did in his early days at the firm, when he was assigned to the copy machine. His job, he said, was to make copies to ensure that files were preserved.

"Our people today are not doing that, Walsh said. "They're doing data analysis, data extraction."

Over time, KPMG US could expand elements of its approach for audit interns to its tax and advisory interns as well, the spokesperson said.

KPMG's Big Four competitors are also reworking how they train and integrate junior staff.

PwC has cut its entry-level office locations for consultants from 72 to 13, betting that fewer hubs will rebuild the sense of connection that its chief people officer, Yolanda Seals-Coffield, said has been weakened in part by AI-driven changes to work.

Dan Diasio, EY's global consulting AI leader, recently told Business Insider that concerns about AI replacing junior roles are misplaced, and their lack of experience is valuable. AI alone produces "statistical sameness," he said. "It's people and their creativity that lift the ceiling."