On the CAE Agenda Q4 2023 – Technology, media and telecommunications

Hot topics in IA and key focus areas

• Cybersecurity (e.g., SEC ruling/disclosure, ransomware incident response, phishing, data theft, end-user data protection and copyrights)
• ESG strategy and reporting (e.g., data governance) – climate change impact on the business
• Regulatory compliance readiness and ongoing assessment (e.g., DSA/DMA, antitrust, and content moderation)
• Overall maturity of ongoing risk management responsibilities and capabilities
• Increased insider threat exposure due to organization restructuring/reduction in workforce
• Digital platforms and complex artificial intelligence (AI) models (impact of Gen AI)
• Inflationary environment (e.g., cost recovery audits and risk prioritizations)
• Alternative sourcing channels for subject matter professionals
• Business transformation support (e.g., ERP or EPM implementation and digitization)
• Resiliency of an organization to maintain acceptable service levels and meet regulatory and stakeholder requirements
• Governance of modern digital architecture (e.g., Agile, cloud governance and DevOps)

Q3 spotlight on:

Stakeholder engagement and trust

• Better integration with other assurance functions (e.g., compliance, ERM, quality and ICFR)
• Collaboration with stakeholders throughout the audit process (e.g., ERM efforts, audit plan, risk assessment and field reporting)
• Improving the IA brand to become a trusted adviser versus a compliance shop and increasing involvement with the executive team

Strategy and value management

• The role of internal audit (IA) in emerging topics such as ESG, AI, cyber threats, disruptive events, new technology/evolving delivery model (e.g., AI/ML, DevOps and infrastructure as code)
• Consideration around the balance between assurance and consulting projects to better partner with the business
• Consideration of IA’s long-term strategy and purpose to align with the organization’s overall mission

Digital acceleration

• Challenging IA’s operational model (e.g., centers of excellence, data and analytics and transformation)
• Adoption/Use of AI technologies in internal audit
• IA's role in the company's data quality and governance journey