KPMG Upgrades GenAI Audit Assistant, Unveiling New Capabilities To Empower Its 9,000+ Audit Partners And Professionals

“We continue to transform our audit globally to be AI-powered and people-driven, building on our existing AI transaction scoring capability,” said Thomas Mackenzie, KPMG U.S. and Global Audit Chief Technology Officer. “While we’ve moved quickly to test, pilot and deploy AI in our audits, where we are today is just the tip of the iceberg. As our technology teams and auditors gain more experience with generative AI, we expect to accelerate innovation across our audits.”

This launch is the next significant milestone in our journey to integrate AI into KPMG Clara, our global smart audit platform, and enhance our AI-led audit and assurance capabilities. Recent milestones include:

• In 2021, KPMG announced it was bringing more than 1,000 Technology Assurance professionals into Audit as part of its multi-year transformation that highlights technology as the future of Audit. Today, those professionals are ensuring we stay ahead of IT attestation trends as businesses increasingly digitize their systems. This is especially critical as businesses embrace AI as a business enabler. Objective external assessors can become consistent collaborators with businesses and support long-term risk management and help business leaders navigate the challenges associated with AI implementation, deployment and operation.
• In 2023, KPMG penned a global audit alliance with MindBridge, embedding its AI and machine learning capabilities into KPMG Clara in the form of Transaction Scoring. Within KPMG Clara, we use Transaction Scoring to perform analysis over 100% of transactional populations, delivering audit evidence and identifying outliers over both general ledger and subledger populations. Today, 200+ teams are using this capability ahead of full deployment across all U.S. audits.
• In 2023, KPMG also announced a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment in Microsoft’s AI and cloud services. Through this expanded alliance relationship, KPMG firms will infuse data analytics underpinned by Microsoft Fabric and generative AI through the Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Cognitive Services into the audit process. By infusing AI through KPMG Clara, KPMG’s 85,000 global Audit professionals will be empowered to focus more closely on higher-risk areas of the audit, sector-specific risks and challenges – to the benefit of both stakeholders and capital markets.
• In January 2024, KPMG joined the Responsible AI Institute to further our efforts to embed trust into everything we do with AI and accelerate responsible deployment of this critical technology.
• In April 2024, in addition to upgrading Audit Chat, the Audit practice, along with the entire firm, began receiving access to Microsoft Copilot. Engagement teams are already deploying Copilot, along with Audit Chat, to transform the walkthrough experience by streamlining the development of formalized business process narratives and creating flowcharts for completed and prepared business processes.

"AI and generative AI technologies are not only shaping the audit but transforming the landscape of financial reporting, creating both opportunities and challenges for business leaders,” added Flynn. “It’s critical we leverage AI to enhance audit quality, but also understand how businesses are embedding AI into their reporting processes to protect the capital markets.”

According to a recent KPMG survey, 83% of financial reporting leaders said that it was important for auditors to utilize AI in performing their analyses, compared to 61% in 2023. In an ongoing effort to stay at the forefront of technological advancements, KPMG has armed its Audit professionals with information and resources to address risks that arise when entities incorporate the use of AI in financial reporting processes and internal control over financial reporting.

Beyond helping businesses to better navigate the challenges associated with AI implementation, objective external assessors can also help businesses drive trust in the capital markets. KPMG is actively deploying an assessment approach that considers governance structures, processes, systems and controls, tailored to meet stakeholders' needs and balance their risk appetite. According to our survey, a third of financial reporting leaders expect their external auditor to provide third-party attestation over the use of AI technology. 

To learn more about KPMG and our Trusted AI capabilities, visit www.kpmg.com or kpmg.com/trusted-ai.

About KPMG LLP

KPMG LLP is the U.S. firm of the KPMG global organization of independent professional services firms providing audit, tax and advisory services. The KPMG global organization operates in 143 countries and territories and has more than 273,000 people working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients. 

KPMG is widely recognized for being a great place to work and build a career. Our people share a sense of purpose in the work we do, and a strong commitment to community service, inclusion and diversity and eradicating childhood illiteracy. Learn more at www.kpmg.com/us.