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AI
AICPA Releases Guidance to Help Auditors Address the Use of AI in Financial Reporting and Auditing [AICPA]
The practice aid, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Considerations for Financial Statement Auditors, is designed to help auditors understand and respond to the use of artificial intelligence in business processes and financial reporting. It also covers the implications when AI is used by auditors in performing the financial statement audit. The guidance will aid CPAs in evaluating AI-related risks, understanding how AI may affect controls, and determining appropriate audit responses and the auditor’s use of AI tools when performing the audit.
Are organizations ready for personalized AI agents in the workplace? [Deloitte]
Imagine a job interview where the candidate brings not only a résumé but also their personal AI agent. Rather than completing an assessment independently, they work alongside an agent they’ve trained over months or years. The interview is no longer evaluating only the individual. It’s also revealing how they collaborate with artificial intelligence. But the more interesting questions might come after they’re hired. Can they bring that agent into their new role? Does the organization need to review or onboard it? Can it connect to company systems or data? Or does the human worker need to recreate what they’ve built using whatever tools the organization already has at its disposal? Organizations may not be confronting these questions at scale yet, but several trends suggest they might need to start thinking about them.
AI is now a defining ethical challenge for the accountancy profession. [ACCA]
Ahead of Global Ethics Day on 21 October, the latest survey by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) has shown a dramatic increase in the number of professional accountants that rank AI use as the leading ethical challenge – cited by 61% of respondents, up from 32% in ACCA’s 2024 survey. According to the report, Navigating ethics for trust, both ethical leadership (43%) and ethical culture (39%) remain in respondents’ top three ethical challenges. The 2026 survey draws on 1,178 responses from finance and accountancy professionals across 135 countries, with roundtable discussions adding qualitative depth.
Inside a TPG-Backed Accounting Firm’s Plans for AI and More Acquisitions [The Information]
As it grows, Smith + Howard is exploring how AI could handle basic work where there’s “a lot of lather, rinse, repeat,” CEO Sean Taylor said. The firm is hoping AI will help it expand without having to hire accountants at the same pace it did previously—reflecting a broader bet among private equity firms and AI labs that the technology can help boost profits when consolidating professional services firms.
Careers
How EY, Walmart are redefining career advancement [HR Executive]
“A few years ago, we started noticing employees demanding more and more opportunities outside the singular path,” said Ginnie Carlier, chief talent and culture officer at EY, during Forbes’ recent Future of Work Summit. “So, we started having conversations around moving from a career ladder to a career playground.” That has involved a greater emphasis on rotation opportunities and mobility efforts; not easy for an organization that has viewed advancement through the traditional pyramid lens for over a century.
The tax, accounting & audit firm of 2030: Building the people of tomorrow’s tax firm [Thomson Reuters] For decades, accounting firms developed talent through repetition. New accountants prepared returns, tied out workpapers, fixed review comments, and gradually worked their way toward more complicated assignments and client conversations. Do enough of the work for enough years, and it was thought that eventually you developed the experience and judgment to become a manager, advisor or partner. AI is breaking that progression.
Firm Happenings
CohnReznick expands West Coast footprint and wealth advisory through Aldrich acquisition [CohnReznick]
“This is a significant milestone in CohnReznick’s growth and an important investment in our future,” said David Kessler(Opens a new window), CEO, CohnReznick Advisory LLC.
KPMG tech and data boss tells staff facing the boot he’s getting promoted [The Register]
Redundancies might have dented morale at KPMG in the UK, but that didn’t stop Paul Henninger, head of technology and data, from sharing some positive personal news with the troops: he’s being promoted.
Audit
Auditors Seek Inspection Guide as Quality Rules Adoption Looms [Bloomberg Tax]
The Big Four auditors want a clear picture of how the industry’s watchdog will scrutinize compliance safeguards under a refreshed governance standard firms will adopt by the end of the year. Deloitte & Touche LLP and KPMG LLP pressed the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for guidance spelling out how inspectors will evaluate their internal governance structures under a new quality control standard. The Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing a batch of revisions that aim to simplify the rules before they take effect in December.
Accounting firm RSM Canada LLP censured by Canadian audit watchdog for backdating signoffs [Canadian Accountant]
According to the settlement agreement, RSM Canada continued to use the electronic workpaper system that the acquired firm had used (“Workpaper System”). Up until September 2023, RSM Canada used a cloud-based service to host the Workpaper System. Its official policy trusted auditors to correctly date its work. However, it was “widely known” at RSM Canada that auditors could manually change the automatically generated current date for a sign-off to an earlier date within seconds, through a “properties” view that was readily accessible to all audit personnel.
Regulation or Lack Thereof
Peak accounting group takes aim at toothless ASIC, defends KPMG review [Capital Brief]
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) has rejected criticism of a review it conducted into KPMG Australia and warned “the corporate regulator lacks the teeth to effectively hold audit firms to account.” Greens Senator Barbara Pocock told Capital Brief the review demonstrates the need for an independent regulator “with teeth” and criticised the association, claiming it “masquerades as impartial when really they’re a lobbying firm for big accountant firms and their leaders”.
