Technology and Audit Services

This article was published in Arabic in Al Muhasiboon magazine, issue 100, November 2024, by the Saudi Organization for Chartered and Professional Accountants, written when the Managing Partner was an Audit Partner and Head of Government Affairs at KPMG, and appears here in translation.

There is no doubt that emerging technology has become an influential factor across all sectors, among them the audit profession. The power of artificial intelligence is transforming audit engagements through automation, data analytics, continuous auditing, and improved risk assessment, and its benefits appear clearly in reading big data and detecting trends, relationships, and variances, enabling auditors to perform more effective audits.

As part of our digital transformation measures and strategies at KPMG, we worked to equip our audit professionals with every possible solution built on emerging technology, and we linked skills and competence to that advancement, aiming to reach a high level of digitization and technology and to strengthen the efficiency and integrity of audit engagements for every organization, company, or entity we work with.

KPMG Clara is a clear example of the progress we achieved in our digital transformation efforts: it is our cloud platform delivering a seamless audit experience, serving as a central point for engagement teams and clients to exchange information, report on and track the progress of the audit, and obtain audit insights through thought leadership, data analytics, visualizations, and more. KPMG Clara is a core part of our efforts to ensure quality and consistent execution, helping achieve seamless integration with the standards and with our audit approach.

"Big data" also holds enormous latent value for companies, owing to its variety, velocity, and sheer volume, which make it impossible to process by traditional means. Once unlocked, it can support a wide range of operational applications: from supporting decision making and procurement assessments to identifying opportunities for day-to-day efficiency.

At KPMG we used the latest software to automate manual processes that used to consume long hours, such as optical recognition and the processing of text and spoken words by artificial intelligence. We also work diligently to use technology to strengthen cloud capabilities in the audit sector, give our professionals opportunities to train on the latest technologies, and invest continuously in the technology that supports big data, the mechanisms for managing it, and the ways of drawing value from it.

In conclusion, it can be said that artificial intelligence in audit services has become a necessity to adapt to, and this trend is expected to grow amid the digital transformation that our beloved Kingdom is leading in every field.

Amid the momentum artificial intelligence is creating, there are significant concerns about its ethical use and its potential risks. We are currently working on the KPMG guide to the use of artificial intelligence, which represents our strategic approach and framework for designing, building, deploying, and using artificial intelligence strategies and technology solutions in a responsible and ethical manner that enhances value.

This article is reproduced here in translation of the original text as published at the source, and the views expressed are those of the author as at the date of publication.