The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants plans to discontinue remote examinations from March 2026, requiring most candidates to return to in-person exam centers. The decision follows a review of remote invigilation practices and growing concerns that technological advances, including artificial intelligence tools, have made online assessments harder to supervise effectively.
The ACCA introduced remote exams during the Covid-19 pandemic to allow students to continue qualifying while test centers were closed. The organization now counts about 257,900 members and more than 500,000 students globally. It concluded that while safeguards had improved, the pace of innovation in digital tools has increased the risk of misconduct beyond manageable levels.
Helen Brand, the ACCA’s chief executive, said the organization had worked intensively to prevent cheating but acknowledged that those seeking to bypass controls were adapting quickly. She said the rapid development of AI had raised the complexity of monitoring candidates in remote environments and pushed online testing to a tipping point.
AI and Exam Integrity
Remote proctoring relies on identity verification, video monitoring, screen tracking, and automated behavior analysis. These systems were designed to detect suspicious activity, but generative AI tools can now assist candidates in producing real-time answers, rewriting text, or summarizing complex material in ways that are difficult for monitoring software to identify.
The shift reflects broader challenges facing educational and professional institutions as AI becomes more accessible and capable. Automated writing tools, voice interfaces, and image recognition systems reduce the friction of external assistance during assessments, creating enforcement gaps for remote testing models. The ACCA said it remains confident in the robustness of its overall assessment framework but concluded that physical supervision provides stronger assurance of fairness and consistency.
The decision comes against a backdrop of exam-related scandals across the accounting profession. PwC, KPMG, and Deloitte have faced multimillion-dollar fines in jurisdictions including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands for misconduct linked to internal training or compliance assessments. In 2022, Ernst & Young agreed to pay $100 million to U.S. regulators over allegations that employees cheated on an internal ethics exam and that the firm misled investigators.
While those cases involved firm-run assessments rather than professional qualification exams, regulators in the United Kingdom have also flagged multiple instances of misconduct in recent years. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales reported in 2024 that cheating incidents continued to rise, even as some professional bodies still permit limited online testing.
Curriculum Modernization and Skills Shift
The move away from remote exams coincides with a broader overhaul of the ACCA’s main qualification, its first in a decade. The updated curriculum will place greater emphasis on AI, blockchain, and data science, reflecting how automation and advanced analytics are reshaping accounting workflows.
Brand said AI has fundamentally changed the skills accountants need, shifting the focus from static knowledge recall to applied judgment and professional skepticism. New modules will use real-time simulations rather than fixed exams to assess how candidates respond to evolving scenarios, risk signals, and data-driven insights.
By tightening exam controls while modernizing its curriculum, the ACCA aims to preserve the credibility of its certification process as digital tools continue to accelerate change across the profession.
