The accounting firm put interns through a scavenger hunt and whodunnit fraud exercise as the career path changes. ORLANDO, Fla.—Minutes into the assignment, the teams lose a member. Management needs them for another project. Design a logo. Don't use the color blue. Only senior associates can use scissors. Except all the senior associates are out sick. Make it an animal corresponding to a KPMG founder. Make sure the lion or owl is in business attire.

So went the training exercise for KPMG summer interns. In a new program this summer, KPMG brought nearly 1,000 of its audit and assurance interns to the accounting firm's sprawling $450 million training facility near the Orlando, Fla., airport for several days of training in critical thinking and judgment.

The logo challenge was one of several exercises designed to use those skills, alongside a scavenger hunt and a whodunnit fraud exercise. The purpose isn't fun and games. Accounting jobs are among the most vulnerable to artificial-intelligence capabilities. KPMG estimates that, in two to three years, no humans will perform routine testing of things like payroll and revenue contracts.