In January 2020, KPMG executives gathered in Orlando for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the Lakehouse, a sprawling, state-of-the-art studying and innovation middle designed to be the agency’s cultural dwelling. Simply two months later, the world shuttered beneath the burden of a world pandemic.
Whereas the timing appeared catastrophic—and lots of companions grumbled about the way it was certainly popping out of their compensation—the $450 million funding reworked into what management now describes as a strategic “accelerant” for the agency’s most formidable pivot ever: the AI revolution. As we speak, Lakehouse is without doubt one of the agency’s main hubs for coaching a brand new technology of execs to navigate a world the place generative AI is not a peripheral instrument however a core element {of professional} service.
Fortune was invited to take a seat in on a three-day session with 600 winter interns, chosen from a pool of 9,000 candidates, representing 146 faculties, because the waves of expertise from New Jersey to Utah to Texas celebrated leaving college by basically going again to class once more. Lakehouse had bits of aptitude situated all through, such because the KPMG-branded “GEN AI Invaders” arcade sport, however the massive, trendy constructing looks like a mix of a state-of-the-art resort, a KPMG workplace constructing and a studying middle.
The Immersive Cultural House
Lakehouse has 800 single-occupancy visitor rooms (staffed by long-term companion Hyatt) and customary areas on every flooring, full with a totally packed fridge. Lakehouse boasts high-end eating facilities, together with the Frequent Floor grab-and-go espresso store, a wine bar known as Mix, a sports activities bar often called The Touchdown and a market-style meals corridor known as The Trade, the place you’ve got coiches together with shawarma, pizza, salads and extra. (It even options an organization historical past part, together with a 1932 version of Fortune, profiling the recent new sector often called accounting.)
It’s a far cry from the accounting, auditing and consulting agency—recognized for its royal-blue shade scheme and its standing as one of many “Large 4” in company accounting, together with PwC, EY and Deloitte—and its gleaming new headquarters in New York Metropolis, as toured by Fortune‘s Eva Roytburg in November. The agency’s new Chair and CEO, Timothy Walsh, who started his five-year time period in July 2025, spoke to Fortune in October concerning the worry “that truthfully retains me up at night time,” round cyber and quantum evolving quicker than KPMG and its shoppers can maintain forward of.
Below Walsh, KPMG has consolidated three legacy Manhattan places of work—345 Park Avenue, 560 Lexington Avenue, and 1350 Avenue of the Americas—right into a 450,000-square-foot house that features “war-mapping” technique rooms, skyline lounges, and even what one government known as “MTV-style” confession rooms for shoppers to report reflections after large tasks. “I actually do imagine that somebody can begin right here as an intern, like I did, and construct a long-term profession,” he advised Fortune in November. And whereas the Manhattan headquarters supply one kind of point of interest for KPMG’s 90-plus places of work and greater than 36,000 workers and companions, Lakehouse is the place interns begin their journey.
The campus additionally encourages bodily exercise by way of a (just lately up to date) sports activities complicated known as Lakeside Park, that includes basketball, seaside volleyball, bikes, 1.2 miles of strolling trails, pickleball and an 18-hole miniature golf course, modeled on the precise PGA tour. Patrick Ryan, Nationwide Managing Associate of Advisory, Technique & Markets, advised Fortune at Lakehouse that, in comparison with the agency he joined many years in the past, you’ll be able to really feel how completely different KPMG is now—actually. He recalled a pickup basketball sport at Lakehouse just a few months beforehand. “There have been a pair arduous fouls, like actually arduous fouls happening,” Ryan advised Fortune. “I wasn’t giving them. It was a tough sport.”
Nick Lichtenberg/Fortune
Ryan mentioned he heard afterward that a few of his crew members had gone as much as the interns afterward and mentioned, “Hey, simply so you already know, that was a tough foul on the man who runs the advisory enterprise.” He mentioned that whereas he prevented getting dunked on, he undoubtedly took “some arduous expenses, we’ll simply say that.” (Ryan truly began his profession at KPMG and, in a comparatively uncommon transfer, departed earlier than boomeranging again in 2011 as a Associate in KPMG’s Deal Advisory and Technique Enterprise. He then turned Workplace Managing Associate of Washington, D.C. and chief of the Federal Enterprise in June 2024 earlier than adopting his present function in July 2025). “I believe we’re a flatter group than plenty of the massive companies,” he mentioned. “Numerous causes behind that, however I believe we’ve carried out that fairly deliberately relative to our tradition.”
Ryan recalled that he was on the ribbon chopping for Lakehouse in January 2020 and remembered the grumbling on the time: “Capital-intensive, center of nowhere in Orlando … some folks may suppose the worst timing. It turned out it was truly the proper timing, as a result of this was our protected haven for the center of the pandemic.”
Ryan was one in every of a number of KPMGers who described how Lakehouse become the Large 4 agency’s model of the NBA bubble in close by Disney world, because it incrementally reopened to KPMG workers with security protocols in place, together with onsite testing and social distancing, for each indoor and out of doors occasions and gatherings. Then, as soon as reopening was beneath approach, in 2023, “we’ve got shoppers right here each single week in scale.”
Sherry Magee, a longtime Orlando resident who has labored at Lakehouse because it was a development website, drove this editor across the campus in a (fairly fast-moving) golf cart, emphasizing that the central Florida location was inside a two-hour flight for many of KPMG’s U.S. workforce.
Provided that KPMG has 2,400-plus companions, there’s generally not sufficient Lakehouse to go round. (KPMG mentioned it generally works with a number of companion motels to accommodate bigger teams if mandatory.) As Magee wheeled across the sidewalks and man-made lakes of Orlando, she highlighted options such because the on-site beekeeper (4 colonies and 80,000 bees, by las rely) and falconer (to steer away the prospect of coyotes, snakes and alligators). She additionally highlighted the numerous methods KPMG is popping Lakehouse into an AI crash-course, even right down to AI-themed taking part in playing cards, out there at its aIQuad, its AI channel on a close-by TV and the library situated subsequent to The Mix that includes AI thought management books. (She wouldn’t let Fortune stroll away with a deck, however she did supply a present of AI-themed gown socks.)
‘Assume, Immediate, Verify’: The New AI Customary
Most of the KPMG interns that Fortune spoke to described a wierd scenario the place the accounting courses they discovered even two years in the past have been out of date in a world the place AI would do a lot of the lifting for them. Bedecked in quarter-zips and khakis, the scholars have been studying finest practices on AI from instructors who have been writing the curriculum nearly in actual time.
On the coronary heart of the present lesson plan is a framework by which KPMG instructors coaching tax interns to “suppose, immediate, verify,” or TPC. Holly Ricker, a director within the tax studying and growth group, advised Fortune that the framework had developed in simply the final three months; it was once “suppose first, immediate later,” however she and different instructors realized that they wanted to explicitly inform college students to verify issues. “We have been telling everybody to suppose first after which immediate, however … simply since you’re prompting, doesn’t imply you’re getting the fitting immediate.” She mentioned she’s happy with the early outcomes. “Everybody’s going round saying ‘TPC, bear in mind the TPC.’ It’s actually caught on.”
Justin Day, an intern primarily based out of the Salt Lake Metropolis workplace, defined that he was older than a lot of his fellow classmates, as he had completed up at Brigham Younger College after spending two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ethiopia and Kenya. When he bought to varsity in 2022, he had invaluable real-world expertise and was poised to undertake AI from the very starting, he mentioned, as he began utilizing ChatGPT inside days of its launch. Day defined that he was an avid AI adopter as a result of it was useful for researching the historic accuracy of his artistic writing pastime: fantasy novels, within the fashion of Brandon Sanderson. He mentioned he discovered from it even when it was mistaken. “I believe that was simply a part of the educational curve. Normally when it leads me astray, it’s extra my fault, and I simply didn’t know what I did mistaken to immediate it to not give me the fitting reply.” Day could not have recognized it, however he was already modeling “TPC.”
Ricker and different instructors defined that interns are being taught to make the most of AI in two distinct capacities: as a studying companion to fill information gaps in unfamiliar subjects, and as a thought companion to iterate and bounce concepts off, as soon as a foundational understanding is established. Ricker mentioned the Tax follow is utilizing a prompting framework known as C-A-R-T-S to tailor outputs for various audiences. It stands for Character/Function, Viewers, Request & Context, Sort of Output, Model & Tone. The Audit follow has an identical acronym: C-R-E-A-T-E, which stands for Context, Function, Anticipated End result, Alter parameters, Tone, Analysis/Further.
This shift is considerably altering the day by day workflow, lowering the “center to center”—the automated, repetitive duties that beforehand consumed three-quarters of knowledgeable’s day. By automating these duties, KPMG intends for its workers to reallocate their time to crucial considering, judgment, and the human factor of service.
KPMG’s AI technique is bolstered by deep technical partnerships with trade giants. The agency makes use of a Microsoft surroundings, integrating Copilot into Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel and Groups to streamline communication and presentation constructing. Associate Patrick Ryan highlighted the current launch of Google Gemini as a “market-leading” turning level. For instance, he highlighted the preparation work he has to do for exterior conferences with prime executives, which entails going by way of previous notes, PowerPoint shows and correspondence. He used to spend a “big chunk” of his time on this, however with AI instruments, and Gemini specifically, he estimated that he reduce his prep time by as much as 75%. “There was simply this second of: the whole lot simply turned simpler, particularly on the go-to market aspect of issues,” Ryan advised Fortune.
‘Extra about conceptual issues than arduous information’
Ok-Linh Nguyen, an intern from Houston, Texas, advised Fortune that she wasn’t a typical “Aggie” regardless of her darkish maroon Texas A&M polo shirt, selecting her research over soccer video games more often than not. Her dad and mom had fled wartorn Southeast Asia to settle in Houston, she defined, and she or he was drawn to A&M’s Skilled Program in Accounting, or PPA, as a result of it permits college students to get each an undergraduate and grasp’s diploma in simply 5 years. Her father, a former PwC advisor, now owns two companies within the Houston space, and her mom works alongside him.
Nguyen shared a number of instances how excited she was to get began on her internship (particularly, she needed to notice that she’s a Monetary Due Diligence intern specializing in power (ENRCI: Power, Pure Assets, Chemical compounds, Infrastructure) at KPMG’s Houston workplace. On the similar time, Nguyen additionally mentioned she was fearful concerning the affect of AI on her personal work and her technology’s job prospects. “It’s scary; the reliance on it’s actually scary.” In Nguyen’s opinion, she was fortunate to enter college barely earlier than the onset of ChatGPT, so she “constructed these elementary expertise to discern when it’s proper and when it’s mistaken.” She couldn’t clarify how one can develop that sense of when the AI is likely to be hallucinating, however “You must have an eye fixed for it … You may’t educate that eye until you — How do I say this? It’s a type of issues the place you need to expertise it to understand it.”
Angela Chen, out of KPMG’s New York Metropolis workplace, advised Fortune that her dad and mom have been torn concerning the lengthy hours she spent finding out at Baruch School, as a result of they wanted her assist working their Chinese language restaurant within the Coney Island part of Brooklyn. Ultimately, although, her mom inspired the profession path, calling it a “golden spoon”—a profitable to earn a dwelling and discover independence.
As regards to AI, Chen was level-headed. “I take advantage of AI as a studying instrument. I believe it’s very useful for me to work with it,” she mentioned, including that “after all” she understands it received’t at all times present good data, and also you at all times must “verify” what it’s telling you. “Normally once I use AI, I simply seek for definitions and ideas … it’s extra about conceptual issues than arduous information.”
Chen wrote to Fortune through LinkedIn that her three-day crash course at Lakehouse had set her up for achievement: “It was nice, I used to be stuffed with studying and meals.”
