What PwC's New Critical Thinking Certificate Says About the Skills Employers Want in the AI Era

PwC US is introducing a certification program to help staff build and demonstrate critical thinking and judgment as AI capabilities grow. More than 85,000 employees across PwC's US and Mexico offices, plus those in its Acceleration Centers, will take part, and the program is set to start in December. PwC's goal is for participants to finish by the end of the company's fiscal year in June 2027. Yolanda Seals-Coffield, chief people and inclusion officer at PwC US, explained that new ways to build skills matter because AI is helping with research, writing, and analysis that were once largely done manually. For Metaintro readers who are applying to professional services, finance, consulting or any desk job where AI now does the first draft, this guide covers how the certificate works, how PwC will judge it, what independent skills data shows, and how to show the same skill in an application.

What Is PwC Launching, and Who Will Take Part?

The new program is a critical thinking certification for partners and staff at PwC's US arm. That group includes PwC's Acceleration Centers, which support client work and business operations.

Seals-Coffield described the aim as a framework that helps employees evaluate information, establish context, challenge information and assumptions, refine analysis, and communicate recommendations.

The certificate sits inside a bigger skills list, as PwC has identified 15 AI skills and 15 human skills, things like empathy and adaptability, that it says will set employees apart. This certification centers on critical thinking and judgment, which the firm considers vital.

As AI takes on more of these foundational tasks, some of the repetition that really helped our people to develop critical thinking and judgment just won't be there, Yolanda Seals-Coffield of PwC US said, according to the Business Insider report.

How Will the Certificate Work, Step by Step?

Staff are expected to complete it over roughly six months, in stages. It begins with an assessment to identify a person's thinking style and how it might shape their judgment. The assessment asks whether a person questions assumptions, reflects on things, or is a pragmatist. The intent is to help workers identify their natural strengths and the areas where they might need the most focus.

Next come classes, which PwC is developing with professors and veteran PwC staffers to help participants sharpen their thinking. After that, employees move to realistic simulations that let them apply the framework to their own work.

A concrete example shows what that practice looks like. An employee could be tasked with reviewing an AI-generated assessment of a company's internal controls for assurance, identifying any deficiencies, and challenging the tool's conclusions.

The next stage adds a personalized AI coach to help staff use what they learned in daily tasks. The coach could help someone practice difficult conversations or prepare for client meetings, for example by reviewing an uploaded proposal and helping the employee anticipate questions. The content will be customized based on employees' seniority level.

How Will PwC Judge Whether Someone Has the Skill?

Staff get time to apply the lessons in daily work before development leaders evaluate that proficiency as part of the company's performance review process. The idea, in Seals-Coffield's words, is not to design a traditional pass/fail exam but to give people repeatable skills and then assess them against those skills at year end.

Assessment will not stop at the certificate either, since PwC will continue to assess its people against their AI and human skills proficiencies throughout their careers, and the AI coach can keep sending instructional content as the company determines updates are needed.

The certificate also connects to training PwC already runs, since the firm views critical thinking and judgment as complementing its teaching in areas from responsible use of AI to professional skepticism.

Why Does PwC Say Junior Work Is Changing?

Seals-Coffield points out that first-year associates are already doing different work than they did two years ago. A recent PwC analysis of US job listings found that entry-level roles exposed to AI were far more likely to include traditionally senior-level skills, including judgment and leadership, than in 2019.

The most AI-exposed junior roles are 7x more likely (than the least AI-exposed junior roles) to demand traditionally senior skills like leadership, in PwC's global 2026 AI Jobs Barometer, a research report dated June 2026. Overall early-career postings have flatlined in highly AI exposed sectors, while seniorised entry level roles show 35% growth since 2019.

Skills needed for the most AI-exposed jobs are changing more than twice as fast as for the least AI-exposed jobs. New tasks added to AI-exposed roles are 2.5 times more likely to rely on skills like empathy, judgement, and creativity. PwC's advice to business leaders includes a call to reinvent early career pathways so that junior staff build leadership, stakeholder management and strategic decision-making sooner.

Where Does the Certificate Fit in PwC's Wider Skills Plan?

PwC US already runs the PwC Learning Collective program, an ecosystem for accelerated growth built for the possibilities of the AI age. Its curriculum is the Human + AI Skillset, a future-ready curriculum built around 30 skills. After a series of 2025 pilots, PwC set out plans to roll out what it calls an industry-first human edge skillset curriculum across the US.

The firm's own phrase for the idea is skills, not titles, are the currency of this new era. The same plan includes the Associate Discovery program, a program for associates with workshops, simulations, applied client scenarios, and PwC-curated learning pathways and certifications.

Margaret Burke, Talent Acquisition and Development Leader at PwC, explained that PwC wanted to make sure that whenever a technical skill is taught anywhere within the firm, a human skill has to be taught alongside it. Burke added that PwC began its recent AI learning push with entry-level hires because those roles were likely to feel the effects first.

Outside its own walls, PwC runs The Human Skills Project, a three-year initiative launched in October 2025. Through it, PwC aims to contribute 1 million service hours and reach 250,000 learners, working with groups such as Taproot Foundation, Year Up United and Junior Achievement.

When we were teaching prompting, we wanted to make sure that we were really amping up critical thinking so that whatever came out of that prompting, you would have a critical eye to the output, Margaret Burke of PwC said, according to the Human Resources Director article.

What Does Independent Skills Data Say Employers Want?

PwC is not alone in this view, since analytical thinking remains the most sought-after core skill among employers, with seven out of 10 companies considering it as essential in 2025, in the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs 2025 digest. Next on that list come resilience, flexibility and agility, along with leadership and social influence.

AI and big data top the list of fastest-growing skills, and creative thinking, along with curiosity and lifelong learning, is also expected to keep rising in importance over the 2025 to 2030 period. On average, workers can expect two-fifths (39%) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025-2030 period.

In all, 63% of employers named skill gaps as a major barrier to business transformation over 2025 to 2030, and 85% of employers surveyed plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce. If the world's workforce were 100 people, 59 would need training by 2030.

The WEF survey and the PwC barometer measure different things, as one is a Future of Jobs Survey of employers, and the other reads job postings.

How Do Employers Define Critical Thinking?

A vague skill is hard to prove, so start with the definitions employers and career centers use. The National Association of Colleges and Employers lists critical thinking as one of eight career readiness competencies. It defines the skill as the ability to identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.

Four of the NACE sample behaviors read like a checklist for an application:

• Make decisions and solve problems using sound, inclusive reasoning and judgment.
• Gather and analyze information from a diverse set of sources and individuals to fully understand a problem.
• Accurately summarize and interpret data with an awareness of personal biases that may impact outcomes.
• Effectively communicate actions and rationale, recognizing the diverse perspectives and lived experiences of stakeholders.

The US Labor Department's O*NET OnLine database gives a tighter version. It defines critical thinking as using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems. Its results table for the skill lists 910 occupations, each with an importance rating. The occupations shown include Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates, physicists, Accountants and Auditors, management analysts and software developers.

Put the three side by side and the overlap is clear. PwC's framework asks staff to challenge information and assumptions, NACE asks graduates to interpret data with an awareness of personal biases, and O*NET asks workers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions.

Is PwC Still Hiring Early-Career Talent?

Yes, PwC continues to recruit on college campuses and makes offers to the majority of its summer interns, though the firm declined to release year-over-year figures on entry-level hiring.

The hiring mix is changing too, as the firm is hiring more engineers and technologists than ever across its businesses, and engineers now work in its tax and assurance divisions, too, not only advisory. The Learning Collective added an AI-native career path for engineers with market-aligned titles and routes into both technical mastery and leadership.

What This Means for Job Seekers, and How Can You Show Critical Thinking?

The certificate is for PwC's own employees, so you cannot sign up for it. What you can take from it is a public list of what one large employer will grade. PwC's framework, to evaluate information, establish context, challenge, refine analysis and communicate recommendations, is a template for every story you tell in an application, and a frame for how to develop critical thinking skills before you apply. Here is how to use it.

• Rewrite one resume bullet for each step. Swap a duty line for a result that shows judgment, such as a figure you checked, an assumption you tested or a recommendation that was adopted. Write it the way critical thinking examples that prove the skill on a resume are phrased, with the check, the finding and the result.
• Bring an AI review story to the interview. One PwC simulation could task staff with reviewing an AI-generated assessment and challenging the tool's conclusions. Prepare one true example where you caught an error in a tool's output, a spreadsheet or a slide deck, and say what you changed.
• Name your thinking style. PwC's opening assessment asks whether you question assumptions, reflect on things, or are a pragmatist. Know your own answer and give one example of when it helped and one of when you adjusted.
• Show the communication step. PwC's framework ends with communicate recommendations, and NACE lists effectively communicate actions and rationale as a sample behavior. Close interview answers with what you recommended and why, in two sentences.

The larger shift is the one PwC's barometer names, that the traditional career ladder is compressing. When junior roles ask for skills that used to come with a promotion, the proof you offer needs to look like the work, a real decision with a real result, rather than a word in a skills list.

Lacey Kaelani, Metaintro's CEO, puts it this way: Anyone can write critical thinker on a resume. The candidates who get hired tell one short story where they questioned the first answer and were right to.

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People Also Asked

Q: Who gets PwC's critical thinking certificate?

A: More than 85,000 people take part, covering employees across PwC's US and Mexico offices, plus those in its Acceleration Centers, with the program set to start in December.

Q: Is the PwC certificate a pass or fail exam?

A: No. Seals-Coffield said the aim is not to design a traditional pass/fail exam, and development leaders will assess the skill as part of the performance review process.

Q: What skills did employers rank highest in the WEF Future of Jobs survey?

A: Analytical thinking topped the list, with seven out of 10 companies considering it as essential in 2025 in the World Economic Forum survey, followed by resilience, flexibility and agility.

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