Auditing in the age of AI

We have change in our DNA. But what we are experiencing today, with the maturity of artificial intelligence, has a greater scope. We are facing a structural transformation in the way our function is understood, organized and executed. So far we have adapted to the new times; Now we are facing a much deeper revolution. The most immediate consequence affects the training of new professionals and talent.

Our model has been built on a pyramidal structure, in which learning was consolidated through the execution of repetitive tasks combined with internal training. In this way, little by little they gained criteria and responsibility. This system is going to be transformed, because the automation of processes, the standardization of data processing and the intelligent analysis of information will progressively reduce the weight of many routine tasks.

We will increasingly see more integrated audit environments, capable of connecting information from different business systems and automating review and documentation processes. This does not eliminate the need for the auditor; on the contrary, it shifts the focus to what really adds value: our professional judgment, the interpretation of risks and the ability to detect anomalies and even relevant trends in real time.

The main implication of this change is linked to training. How do we create new profiles capable of reviewing the information generated by technology without going through the processes that have accompanied the profession for the last 100 years? To obtain the answer, we must rethink the relationship of our profession with universities. Even more so considering the difficulty we have in attracting the youngest. Not only do we have to approach talent first, but also have a curriculum content adapted to a profession that is facing a technological challenge that will make us change the way we work. It is an evolution that will increase, as auditors face the challenge of auditing entities in which artificial intelligence is incorporated into their activity and the flow of information runs in an automated way to build financial information.

At the same time, a challenge that will lead us to have hyper-specialized profiles, not only in accounting or finance, but also in technology. In the medium term, it might be convenient to talk about a new degree of auditing that combines the knowledge associated with the work with technological elements. Why not? It is on our roof to find formulas that allow us  to recover the attractiveness of the profession for the new generations. In my heart I harbor the hope that precisely this change will be the lever that will make us attractive again among the youngest, precisely by adopting avant-garde ways of working.

I claim a profession that goes beyond review, that fulfills a social function in its inherent objective of providing transparency to the market. There is talk that today's young people want to find a workplace aligned with their way of understanding the world, places with commitment, and that is not so different from what my generation, or at least I, was looking for three decades ago.

All this new challenge also affects our regulator. The incorporation of artificial intelligence introduces new challenges in terms of explainability, traceability and validation of models, essential elements in a regulated environment.

There is an additional reading. The audit and assurance areas of professional services firms are currently experiencing a moment of unprecedented investment and innovation that is allowing us to make concrete improvements  in efficiency, consistency and analytical capacity.

The image of the Luddites in the nineteenth century comes to mind, workers who rose up against machines with the conviction that they would be able to maintain the current system. I don't think the current context will be different: there will be resistance because, after all, we are talking about a phenomenon that affects the entire productive fabric as a whole. But those who do not embrace change will be left behind.

I think all this technology is here to help us. I have been in this profession for almost three decades and I have never seen it at a time like this. There is something stimulating in knowing that we are going to experience the most profound transformation that auditing has ever known, and that it is up to us, those of us who are today, to make the decisions that will define what the profession of the future will be like. We may be living in a moment of uncertainty. But that doesn't mean it's not fascinating.