Seize the future: The agentic shift in SOX compliance

Download PDF

Attention SOX practitioners: the landscape is shifting beneath our feet. The traditional ways of managing SOX - with manual processes, endless spreadsheets, and constant back-and-forth with control owners - are no longer sufficient in the face of growing complexity and mounting pressure.

Now is the time to discover how you can harness the power of agents to take your SOX program to the next level.

The potential of agentic AI

The potential applications for agents in SOX are vast. From automatically collecting and organizing evidence, to continuously monitoring controls, to surfacing insights and anomalies - agents can take on the most tedious, time-consuming aspects of SOX and perform them faster, more consistently, and more thoroughly.

By enhancing the quality, reliability, and breadth of SOX testing, agents can fundamentally elevate the level of assurance you provide.

The TACO framework for agentic AI:

As we consider how to use agents to improve SOX program outcomes, it is useful to think about the types of activities that agents are well suited to. For this, we use the TACO framework, which contemplates four primary agent types.

Taskers: Focus on accomplishing singular goals by breaking them into structured, repeatable tasks
Automators: Handle goals that require integration across multiple enterprise applications
Collaborators: Act as AI teammates, working contextually & closely with human operators
Orchestrators: Involve multi-agent ecosystems where agents collaborate to achieve complex tasks at scale.

Key applications of agentic AI in SOX

Some of the key applications of agentic AI in SOX compliance include:

Evidence collection: Agents can access shared storage areas and applications to retrieve documents, data, and other common forms of evidence.
Walkthrough performance and documentation: Agents can facilitate the process of performing and documenting walkthroughs, including scheduling meetings and transcribing calls.
Integrated third-party risk and SOC report review: Agents can manage SOC reports and third-party risk, extracting relevant control descriptions and testing results.
SOX calendar and planning: Agents can help plan the SOX program execution calendar, reviewing timelines and completion dates from prior cycles.
Controls testing: Agents can perform control testing, extracting relevant information from source materials and analyzing data.

Getting started with agentic AI in SOX

To get started with agentic AI in SOX compliance, organizations should establish clear objectives that are measurable and aligned on outcomes. Reviewing SOX-relevant business processes, in-scope systems, and controls catalog to identify opportunities for rationalization is also advisable.

The future of SOX compliance

The advent of agentic AI represents a watershed moment for SOX programs. Agents are not just another tool in the toolbox - they are a fundamentally different way of working that will redefine what is possible in SOX compliance. The business case for agents is undeniable, with benefits including efficiency gains, enhanced quality and assurance, and cost savings.