The internal audit profession stands at an inflection point. While organizations increasingly operate through data-rich systems, automated workflows, and AI-enabled decision-making, many audit approaches remain grounded in manual sampling and retrospective control testing. The question is no longer whether internal audit should leverage data analytics, but whether it can remain Read More
For many organizations, the move to a modern data architecture brings with it a host of appealing possibilities. It promises centralized data, broken down silos, advanced analytics, power dashboards, forecasting models, and, of course, everyone’s favorite topic: artificial intelligence. The data warehouse or data lake—often cloud-based, scalable, and fast—becomes the Read More
According to a new survey, more than 70 percent of chief audit executives say that building a culture of innovation in their teams and better leveraging data analytics and generative AI to support internal audit, are important or extremely important priorities in 2026. The report, published by research and consulting Read More
Last year in this space, we wrote about a profession emerging from a period marked by uncertainty, disruption, and rapid change. As 2024 turned into 2025, internal auditors were still grappling with the aftershocks of the pandemic, accelerating technological change, geopolitical instability, and questions about where—and how—they could add the Read More
GUEST BLOG POST A chief audit executive once said to me: “Almost every team follows a process. Just because they don’t write it down, doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist.” It was at that moment that I realized that the lack of capability maturity or process rigor doesn’t necessarily mean that Read More
It’s no secret that the amount of data that organizations are producing is exploding exponentially. This overload of data can make internal audit coverage ever more challenging given the sheer volumes of data the typical organization generates, especially larger organizations. This problem is often compared to the difficulty of trying Read More
Investigators and internal auditors are using a somewhat simple mathematical principle to catch fraudsters. Known as “Benford’s law,” it is the idea that the distribution of digits in multi-digit natural numbers is not random, nor is it equally distributed; instead, it follows a predictable pattern. In the realm of data Read More
GUEST BLOG POST With the rise of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, sometimes I think that we internal auditors will all soon be out of a job. But then I have a very boring task to do, and I wonder why I can’t just ask a machine to do it! Just Read More
With businesses facing the strongest economic headwinds in years, the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors is urging internal auditors to embrace data analytics to navigate more risky, uncertain, and volatile times ahead. To support their call to action the Chartered IIA, a professional organization for internal auditors in the U.K. Read More
Why do some internal auditors shy away from using data analytics? Some say the complexity and jargon surrounding it are too overwhelming. Team leaders don’t know how to distinguish between hype and practical application. Team members are hungry to learn how to apply data analytics but aren’t sure where to Read More
