LONDON – The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the world’s largest accounting body, has announced it will halt remote exams from March 2026, citing an alarming increase in AI-assisted cheating that current safeguards can no longer contain.
ACCA, which represents nearly 260,000 members and more than 500,000 students globally, introduced remote examinations during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain educational progress when in-person centres were closed. However, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence tools has made policing online assessments increasingly ineffective, according to ACCA CEO Helen Brand. “We’re seeing the sophistication of cheating systems outpacing what can be put in, in terms of safeguards,” Brand told the Financial Times.
Industry insiders say students were reportedly using AI to generate answers in real time, including taking photos of exam questions and feeding them to advanced chatbots, a practice that makes remote monitoring tools virtually obsolete. As a result, most ACCA exams will now require candidates to sit in designated physical centres, with remote options reserved only for rare and exceptional circumstances, such as medical needs or geographic barriers.
The shift reflects broader concerns across the professional certification landscape about maintaining the integrity of high-stakes exams in the age of generative AI. Just as Pakistan’s authorities recently moved against dishonest practices affecting customers at petrol pumps, where regulators cracked down on pricing and fairness issues linked to unethical conduct online and offline, institutions worldwide are now wrestling with technology-enabled fraud in education and credentialing.
The ACCA decision follows numerous high-profile cheating scandals in the accounting industry, including hefty fines for global firms whose employees were implicated in internal exam misconduct, illustrating just how deeply issues of trust and credibility are being tested.
ACCA said the move aims to reinforce professional standards and restore confidence in its qualifications, even as critics argue that eliminating remote exams may create new challenges for international candidates who relied on online flexibility.
