Last week, I referred to a LinkedIn post by my friend, Tom McLeod. He has been called “One of the deepest thinkers in our profession,” and I share that view.
The title of his post was 20 Theses | Challenging Internal Audit.
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Tom shared his views:
Here is my 20 Theses as to what needs to/will happen to Internal Audit before 2030:
AI & Automation Impact
1 – Human-AI audit partnerships will become standard, with AI handling >95% of testing while humans manage stakeholder relationships.2 – Mass automation will reduce audit departments to 20% of current staffing levels.
3 – Audit oversight committees will be replaced by AI algorithms programmed with regulatory requirements and risk parameters.
Real-time & Continuous Auditing
4 – Continuous auditing will become the standard, making the annual audit cycle obsolete.
5 – Real-time risk dashboards will replace static, point-in-time risk assessments.
6 – Micro-audits lasting hours rather than weeks will replace traditional engagements, allowing rapid response to emerging risks.
Advanced Technology Applications
7 – Quantum computing will revolutionise fraud detection by identifying patterns invisible to current systems.
8 – Sentiment analysis of internal communications will become a standard audit procedure for evaluating control environment.
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