Autonomous Airborne Auditors?
Some types of audit require significant amounts of low level work reviewing inventory levels. Literally counting the products and materials in warehouses to ensure that they tally with the information contained in a company’s ledger. Leading audit firm EY is experimenting with ways to take the drudgery out of that work, with a proof of concept that uses drones and AI image processing software to confirm that stocks in a warehouse (or a carpark) line up with what is expected. Read more here.
An eye-catching effort no doubt, although as Alan W Anderson, a leading audit thinker, noted recently, the combination of analytics and continuous auditing techniques are what is likely to drive significant change in the way that auditors work in the future. Efforts such as the xBRL CSV specification, which allows system-independent, standardised and highly granular data collection are designed to support these types of change going forward.
