Audit & Assurance

FY24 was very strong for Audit & Assurance.

We have been supporting our clients as they navigate a world of high inflation and financing costs. We provide trust to the capital markets, and in these uncertain market conditions, the demand for our high-quality auditing services has remained strong. We have also continued to grow our assurance business, whilst the need for certain assurance services has been lower than expected, mainly due to the macroeconomic market challenges related to the clients’ listing appetite and the increased cost of capital.

Ready for the future of integrated sustainability reporting

In the upcoming year, two exciting aspects are the possibilities of GenAI to innovate and our scaling-up for the sustainability domain, helping clients achieve reporting and assurance readiness. Our primary focus will be on sustainability eporting. We have made significant investments into building our professionals’ sustainability competence in order to best serve our clients in the sustainability-reporting and assurance space since the CSRD came into force in 2024. Starting from the calendar year 2025, an even larger group of companies will begin to produce regulated sustainability reports, which is a substantial growth driver for us.

Broadening skills and attracting young talent

We have been part of the initiative to develop a sustainability auditor authorisation programme in Finland that intends to respond to the growing demand for the assurance of sustainability reports. We have now several Authorised Sustainability Assurance service providers (SASPs) in our in-house practice. This has brought a fresh perspective to the field and serves as a prime example of how we are making an impact by broadening the skillset of our professionals and increasing the attractiveness of the audit profession. We offer a significant number of opportunities annually for those in the early stages of their careers – the younger generation is particularly interested in sustainability reporting and its assurance.

We have been using various technologies in auditing for a long time, but now all our professionals utilise several technologies (including AI tools) in auditing. At Deloitte we are committed to equipping our professionals for the new era in auditing, where everyone needs to have a certain level of AI competence or order to master auditing. We are on our way to modernising our practices, but we are also learning and are prepared to audit our clients’ future AI-based accounting.