KPMG webcast ties economic outlook to AI-driven reporting shifts

KPMG is putting macro forecasting, AI and financial reporting in the same room, a sign that the firm now wants professionals to connect market conditions to accounting decisions in one client conversation. Its June 16 Quarterly Outlook webcast runs from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM ET, offers 1.0 CPE credit, and is built around a senior economist’s third-quarter outlook, the critical signals business leaders should watch, and a discussion of how AI and emerging technologies are reshaping financial reporting and accounting while keeping human judgment at the center.

That structure matters inside a firm like KPMG, where technical accounting, advisory and audit have long lived in adjacent lanes but are increasingly being sold as one integrated problem. The webcast sits within KPMG’s Financial Reporting View lineup, and the firm describes its Quarterly Outlook materials as quarterly updates on accounting and financial reporting developments, including SEC matters and FASB activity. In other words, this is not just a market briefing. It is a training signal about the kind of cross-functional fluency KPMG wants on the front line.

The June program also follows a March 2026 Quarterly Outlook that featured a conversation with OpenAI’s Head of Technical Accounting, Alex Gee. That kind of programming shows how quickly AI has moved from a side topic to a core part of KPMG’s reporting narrative. For auditors and consultants, the message is hard to miss: clients are no longer asking only what AI can automate. They are asking how it changes controls, how it changes reporting, and how fast finance teams have to adapt when those two pressures collide.

KPMG’s own AI-in-finance research puts a number on that shift. Its 2026 Global AI in Finance report surveyed 1,013 senior finance leaders across 20 countries and 13 sectors, and says AI in finance has moved from adoption to advantage, with active use more than doubling over two years. Even so, only 23% of organizations said AI is exceeding expectations, which leaves a familiar gap between enthusiasm and execution. That gap is where governance, controls and workforce readiness become the real story, not the chatbot demo.

KPMG’s 2024 messaging on AI in financial reporting pushed the same point: cloud, data and governance investments are critical for financial reporting leaders and external auditors trying to manage risk as systems change. The firm has another webcast on June 17, titled The AI Enabled Finance Operating Model, underscoring that finance work is being recast around workflow redesign as much as around model deployment. For KPMG professionals, the prize is no longer just knowing the rules or the tools. It is knowing how to explain both, at the same time, under client pressure.