According to Fortune, KPMG’s new U.S. chair and CEO Timothy Walsh started as an intern 33 years ago doing monotonous copy work, but now leads the firm from a gleaming new 450,000-square-foot Manhattan headquarters that consolidates three legacy offices into one tower with a 40% smaller footprint. The new space features “MTV-style” confession rooms for clients, war-mapping strategy areas, skyline lounges, and a barista bar called Common Ground, all designed to attract Gen Z talent in an era when most new grads job-hop frequently. Walsh insists internships remain “the most important part of what we do” even as the firm trains junior consultants to manage AI agents rather than do grunt work themselves. The office opens November 5 with a digital booking system that’s already “sold out” despite most professionals only coming in roughly three days weekly.
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The AI manager pipeline
Here’s the thing that really stands out: KPMG isn’t just giving juniors better coffee and mood lighting. They’re fundamentally rethinking what “entry-level” even means in an AI-dominated world. The firm’s global AI workforce lead told Business Insider they want “juniors to become managers of agents” – meaning new hires will delegate data analysis and research to AI while focusing on strategic decisions. That’s a massive shift from Walsh’s copy machine days. Basically, they’re trying to skip the boring parts of career development entirely and jump straight to management-level thinking. Will that actually work? Or are we just giving fancy titles to people who still need to learn the fundamentals?
The hybrid gamble
KPMG’s approach to return-to-office feels different from the heavy-handed mandates we’ve seen elsewhere. They’re using what one executive called a “gentle pull rather than a push” – betting that cool spaces will naturally attract people rather than forcing attendance. And the data suggests this might be smarter: surveys show 99% of RTO mandates lower engagement, and nearly half increase attrition. The firm expects most people in about three days weekly, which feels realistic for client-service work where professionals often travel. But here’s my question: if the office is so amazing, why aren’t they pushing for more attendance? Maybe they know the hybrid genie is permanently out of the bottle.
Architecture as culture solution
What’s fascinating is how deliberately they’ve designed this space to solve specific hybrid work problems. The building is split into four New York-inspired “neighborhoods” with different work modes – quiet zones, collaborative hubs, transient rooms. They’ve got cameras that turn in-person employees into “large apparitions” on remote workers’ screens. Lighting and sound adjust to occupancy. They even considered neurodiversity when choosing materials. This isn’t just another fancy corporate headquarters – it’s a laboratory testing whether physical space can rebuild the culture that remote work eroded. The Ignition lab with wall-sized LED touchscreens is positioned as a “thinking accelerator” where people “get more done in one day here than they would in 30 days anywhere else.” That’s quite the claim.
The intern-CEO narrative
Walsh’s personal story from copy room to corner office is central to KPMG’s pitch. He genuinely believes someone can start as an intern today and build a long-term career, maybe even more so now because “there are so many ways to grow inside one firm.” But let’s be real – his 33-year climb represents a career path that barely exists anymore. The average tenure for younger workers is shrinking dramatically. KPMG’s bet seems to be that by combining AI-powered workflows with irresistible physical spaces, they can make the traditional corporate ladder appealing again to a generation that’s largely rejected it. It’s an ambitious attempt to have it both ways: embrace modern work trends while preserving institutional loyalty. We’ll see if moody lounges and AI assistants are enough to make that happen.
