Deloitte rolled out a series of new artificial intelligence capabilities within its global cloud-based audit and assurance platform, Omnia, designed to evolve the audit process, the Big Four accounting firm said on July 15.
With the rapid advancement of AI technology, the audit profession is undergoing an exciting transformation, said Dipti Gulati, CEO of U.S. audit and assurance at Deloitte.
“Continuing our efforts to integrate increasingly advanced, adaptive technologies into our audit platform has been a critical investment, enabling our auditors to deliver against rising demands in the profession with agility while maintaining our commitment to quality and trust,” she said.
Building upon Deloitte’s Omnia platform, this suite of new capabilities reimagines key processes using generative AI, such as:
- Enhanced documentation review: GenAI capabilities can perform initial reviews of audit documentation and suggest enhancements for clarity and consistency.
- Improved navigation of financial statements: Auditors can explore relevant information in uploaded draft financial statements and ask nuanced questions about statement content, streamlining tie-out procedures.
- Streamlined data extraction processes: GenAI’s ability to summarize information across documents enables auditors to unlock richer insights and reach conclusions more efficiently.
- Advanced drafting capabilities: A GenAI-powered workflow can create first drafts of audit-related communications and accounting memos.
- Improved research capabilities: New capabilities within Deloitte’s audit and accounting research platform help deliver timely responses to auditor research questions and synthesize challenging accounting topics, helping them uncover new insights.
- Proactive risk management: Deloitte is developing risk identification technology designed to evaluate external information sources for risk events and identify potential audit risk factors.
“Our auditors’ talent and industry-leading perspectives are at the forefront of our audit approach,” said Chris Griffin, U.S. audit and assurance talent and transformation leader at Deloitte. “Building upon over a decade of investment in advancing our global Omnia platform, these new capabilities blend the knowledge and experience of our professionals with tools designed to empower experienced auditors to navigate increasing demands in the profession and keep pace with technological transformation.”
Deloitte is also integrating intelligent agent capabilities into the Omnia ecosystem. AI agents function as digital specialists capable of performing specific tasks, remembering relevant information, and coordinating with other agents as an interconnected system. Embedding agents into Omnia can help automate tasks such as gathering data from diverse sources, managing complex project plans, and detecting patterns and anomalies, Deloitte says.
- Related article: Deloitte Launches Global Agentic Network
“The rapid pace of technological advancement and increasing complexity across business environments demands a continued commitment to digital change within our business,” said Will Bible, U.S. audit and assurance digital transformation and innovation leader at Deloitte. “We are excited to be at the forefront of efforts to leverage the latest AI technology in audit and assurance processes, forging an innovative approach to work that marries a network of adaptive, cross-functional AI tools with the skills of our talent.”
These AI capabilities were all developed in alignment with Deloitte’s Trustworthy AI framework, which embeds governance, controls, and compliance throughout the AI lifecycle.
The firm says it remains committed to infusing GenAI organization-wide to empower its professionals and augment their skills. Deloitte has rolled out purpose-specific large language models and chatbots that can be used by its nearly 85,000 audit and assurance professionals globally. The firm’s auditors can also use Deloitte’s employee-wide GenAI chatbot, running more than 3 million AI prompts in the first year of use.
Deloitte says it’s also increasing AI fluency, training more than 120,000 professionals via the Deloitte AI Academy and investing in global technology learning and development initiatives, including the recent launch of a GenAI and advanced AI applications certification program. The firm recently launched the Global Agentic Network, offering a suite of ready-to-deploy AI agents and advising clients as they deploy them at scale. Deloitte is also actively deploying agentic AI across its own operations while upskilling its professionals to use and implement this technology.
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