Big Change Forecasted for Auditors?

January 8, 2019 by Guest Writer

Accounting Today, shares that at a roundtable discussion at New York University (NYU), with distinguished members, it was noted that the role of auditors could change drastically or even diminish within 10 years.

Professor Yermack of NYU said, ““The distributed ledger reduces the need for audit by 97 percent,” he said. “Auditors in the future will be competing on the basis of productivity, which will essentially mean who has the fastest hardware and software. And fraud, in the classical sense, will be all but impossible.”

Fraud being impossible sounds wonderful but the reality is that the type of fraud we currently know will possibly vanish, but fraud in other forms will probably arise.  So what does this mean for those in the auditing profession?  Some at the round table agree with Professor Yermack that auditing is a dying profession and others are more optimistic and see a change in the role that auditors will play.

There are initiatives being launched like the “Dynamic Audit Solution” by the American Institute of CPAs and also new software by Sage Intacct to work with auditors to prepare for the future.  Whichever direction it takes, it is important to stay abreast of the situation and to start looking at what you can be doing to improve your viability.

For detailed information:  Audit dead in a decade?

Image Credit:  Deposit Photos