THE ADAPTATION OF INDEPENDENT AUDIT PROFESSION TO THE DIGITAL ERA

Abstract

Today, the independent audit profession has updated the auditor’s role from working among piles of paperwork to digital age. Unprecedented innovations in this area are cognitive technology (artificial intelligence), predictive analytics, workflow automation and smart digital hubs and electronic audit apps, eliminating boring and labor-intensive manual processes that are traditionally associated with an audit process. Moreover, these innovations can increase the quality of audit and provide more benefits for customers, auditors, investors and capital markets as a whole. On the other hand, in line with these developments, today's auditors should keep their professional knowledge and skills up-to-date in order to meet the challenges posed by the profession and should be able to follow the era closely. In addition to these, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the audit industry to work remotely and strengthen its infrastructure with digital technologies. The full disclosure restrictions during the pandemic have pushed the audit industry for remote working. This study aims to highlight the innovations experienced by the audit profession and to identify the factors for those who are willing to work in the audit in the future. In addition, suggestions are made in order to achieve efficient and quality results in the face of positive situations such as technological developments that may occur in the audit sector in the future or negative situations such as global pandemics. This study contributes to the literature on emphasizing the need to transform audit services by integrating new technologies and enriching studies on audit quality.