World’s largest accounting Body ACCA bans online exams over rising AI cheating
The ACCA, the world's largest accounting body, will stop conducting online exams from March 2026 due to rising AI-powered cheating. The decision affects over 500,000 students globally, as the organisation says cheating methods now outpace existing safeguards.
New Delhi: The largest accounting institution in the world has voted to discontinue online exams, attributing it to an increasing number of cheating by artificial intelligence that it claims has reached a tipping point. In a move that will change the landscape of hundreds of thousands of students across the world, the UK-based Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) stated that the majority of its exams will be in person starting in March 2026.
The relocation will impact over 500,000 ACCA students around the world and has come after increased questions that remote exam protections are failing to keep up with the ever-changing AI technologies. The ACCA chief executive Helen Brand noted that the level of cheating technique is now outpacing the mechanisms put in place to curb it, meaning that online exams are becoming more and more hard to police.
ACCA says AI cheating is outpacing safeguards
As a report conducted by the Financial Times indicated, ACCA stated that the efforts to increase the security of online exams cannot be as high, as the abuse of AI technologies can now be more difficult to identify and manage. Since March 2026, no exceptions with regard to exceptional circumstances will be permitted in cases of candidates sitting exams offline.
Helen Brand observed that although the organisation has invested a lot in anti-cheating measures, individuals who are determined to contravene the rules are doing it at a faster pace. She used the excuse that cheaters who desire to cheat are likely to work faster than regulators and examinatory bodies can react to them.
Remote exams introduced during COVID-19
Remote examinations were introduced by the ACCA in the COVID-19 era to continue with the qualifications in lockdowns. Although this system started by increasing access and flexibility, the body is of the opinion that technology advancement has compromised exam integrity.
Brand admitted that no matter how vigorous the decision to go back to physical exam centres, cheating will not be absolutely eradicated. She indicated that the conventional approaches, like the use of hidden notes, among other physical tricks, are not completely gone. Nonetheless, the ACCA is of the opinion that face-to-face examinations minimise the size and intricacy of AI-aided malpractice.
The curriculum will focus more on AI skills
Although the ACCA is working to combat misuse of AI in the exams, it is not rejecting the technology. It is the first time the body is revising its flagship qualification in ten years, and moreover, there is more focus on AI, blockchain and data science.
According to Brand, AI has greatly transformed the capabilities required of an accountant, and future professionals should be responsible for knowing how to use such technologies efficiently.
The integrity of examinations is not the only concern of students. The accounting profession all over the world has encountered a number of scandals where people have cheated in professional tests. Large companies like PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY have incurred massive fines in various countries.
In 2022, US regulators fined EY 100 million dollars because the employees were caught cheating on internal ethics exams and lying to investigators. Although the tests were independent of ACCA qualifications, the cases indicate broader issues on ethics and compliance in the profession.