From ethical knowing to ethical becoming: rethinking accounting ethics education in the age of artificial intelligence

Purpose Artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly performs the cognitive tasks that accounting ethics education has treated as central to ethical competence. This paper aims to reconceptualise ethical competence as ethical becoming, the ongoing formation of the dispositions and judgement required for answerable professional practice. Design/methodology/approach Through theory synthesis, the paper integrates virtue ethics, Vallor’s account of technomoral virtue, professional identity formation theory and socialising conceptions of accountability. Four practice scenarios set in South Africa’s International Financial Reporting Standards–based accounting environment illustrate the framework against a knowledge-transmission account of ethical competence. Findings Ethical becoming is expressed through practical wisdom, moral courage, relational accountability and situated professional judgement. Relational accountability grounds the other capacities, and situated professional judgement brings them together in decisions answerable to those they affect. The capacities develop through participation, rehearsal, reflective practice and mentorship within communities of practice, in an AI-enabled environment that can remove or open opportunities to exercise ethical judgement. Research limitations/implications The framework is conceptual and illustrated in one jurisdiction. Its four propositions require testing with students, trainees and practitioners. Practical implications The framework informs curriculum design, teaching and assessment, illustrated through a worked example, and supports professional bodies and organisations in building ethical formation into competency frameworks and workplace learning. Social implications Forming professionals who remain answerable to investors, communities and others affected by professional judgement strengthens the public trust on which accounting’s public-interest mandate depends. Originality/value Drawing on Vallor’s technomoral virtue ethics, this paper connects ethical formation and AI-enabled accounting, explaining how practical wisdom, moral courage and answerability form when AI performs part of professional work.