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The odyssey of internal audit: The path to 2030

The Global CAE Survey reveals upcoming tech and talent trends

Deloitte's 2024 Global Chief Audit Executive (CAE) Survey highlights trends impacting the future of internal audit (IA) as well as the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the function. With insights from more than 200 CAEs across 35 countries, representing more than 6,000 IA professionals, the findings aim to equip leaders and professionals with the knowledge and strategies needed to navigate the digital revolution and maximize their impact.

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While internal audit functions' influence has undeniably grown, they now face the risk of encountering a “glass ceiling.” To break through and fully unleash the function's potential, Chief Audit Executives must enhance their communication of internal audit’s value, embrace cutting-edge digital tools, and invest strategically in their people and innovation. Our 2024 Global CAE Survey unveils a pivotal moment for IA leaders worldwide.

As IA enters a new era marked by the advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), CAEs have a unique opportunity to transcend traditional digitalization and reimagine the function’s purpose, remit, and operating model. To achieve this, CAEs must challenge the status quo, foster diversity within their teams, and cultivate a new generation of audit professionals poised to pioneer innovative approaches.

Key findings of our 2024 Global CAE Survey

To unleash IA’s impact, CAEs must become better at determining and identifying value. They must translate this into the function’s purpose and become more ambitious and willing to explore and disrupt.

CAEs must think and communicate like CEOs, selling their value proposition and unique selling points across the organization.

As CAEs set their strategies and performance objectives, they should think carefully about their connection to purpose and the impact stories they want to communicate when it comes to evaluating their performance.

Functions need access to technology, the skill set, and the mindset to take advantage of its benefits. IA is on the verge of a digital revolution. CAEs need to challenge the status quo or risk being left behind.

As organizations undergo digital transformation, IA functions must attract and retain employees with the right digital skills. Their experience will also be essential if IA teams dive deeper into GenAI’s capabilities.

IA leaders need to rethink traditional approaches and find innovative ways to integrate capability development into day-to-day activities, stimulate team-based learning, and equip auditors with real-time knowledge assets.

Internal auditing is a career path filled with lifelong learning, but it is not for the fainthearted. Our survey found an increase in staff burnout. For some, this may be the aftershocks of the pandemic playing through, but CAEs should recheck the fuel gauge.

Too often, innovation requires permission or is constrained. As CAEs gain access to technologies that open a multiverse of possibilities, we encourage them to avoid falling into the trap of groupthink.

No matter where you are on your GenAI exploration, its importance as a tool to drive innovation cannot be understated, and neither should the need for CAEs to engage with it at pace.

The stats are telling a tale. Are you all ears?

  • 82% of IA functions have increased their impact in the last three years, but only 14% feel they have reached their full potential
  • 92% feel periodic stakeholder feedback remains the most utilized tool to measure IA’s value and impact
  • 60% of IA functions use an Audit Management System (AMS)
  • 91% of CAEs are investing in digital training and development to help overcome the digital skills gap
  • 38% of IA functions have a documented digital strategy
  • 67% of CAEs are most concerned about the breadth and depth of technology capabilities within their teams
  • 61% of CAEs feel it has become more difficult to attract and retain top talent into internal audit
  • 31% of CAEs provide their teams with less than 30 hours of training per year
  • 47% of CAEs expect their budgets to increase in the next couple of years
  • 55% of auditors are not truly empowered to innovate

Preparing for 2030 and beyond

As we look toward the future, the horizon is steeped in possibilities and exciting new opportunities for IA functions. By 2030, technological advancements and an evolving business landscape will likely transform the function into a markedly different entity. Predictions include the use of digital twins to simulate changes within the risk and control landscape, enabling better governance and risk management. A new breed of AI-savvy auditors will emerge, equipped with specialized skills in machine learning, systems architecture, coding languages, and model design.

We predict a future where IA functions recruit or procure access to software developers, user experience experts, and talent from creative backgrounds to help bring fresh ideas and challenge the status quo. The IA function will also need to focus on the human element, incorporating psychological safety into its methodologies and reporting.

To become a true peer of the executive, IA must do more to prove its worth and value and elevate its brand. For those that achieve this, we expect to see another step change in the gravitas of the CAE, with a permanent seat at the table and equality among the C-suite.

Are you ready to redefine the future of internal audit?