KPMG, Armanino add generative AI to audit tools

Generative AI continues to take the accounting world by storm, as both KPMG and Armanino today announced further integrations with the new technology in their respective audit tools.

KPMG Clara

KPMG announced the integration of generative AI into KPMG Clara, its global smart audit platform, generally used internally by staff members. Its new capabilities include the ability for AI assistants to review documents to help engagement teams identify risk factors (such as reviewing meeting minutes and flagging possible accounting and fraud risks); direct access to KPMG's audit methodology, enabling auditors to design appropriate substantive testing procedures to respond to risks more quickly; and the ability to summarize, question and consider improvements to engagement-specific audit documentation within KPMG Clara.

"With seamless access to trusted generative AI capabilities within our audit workflow, our 9,000 auditors will be empowered to deliver quality audits," said Scott Flynn, KPMG U.S.'s vice chair of audit. "KPMG Clara with AI will not only free up resources to spend more time on the areas of highest risk, but will directly help our teams exercise professional skepticism to protect the capital markets." 

Additional AI and generative AI capacities will be deployed over the next few months. These include a growing prompt library that will, over time, include AI-powered agents to assist audit teams in driving audit quality; automated quality scoring to generate AI assessments and deliver feedback to audit teams on actions for quality improvement; use of AI and machine-learning to automate the review of financial statements, augmenting engagement teams' assessment that all required disclosures have been made to the capital markets; and assurance capabilities integrated into the workflow for teams delivering assurance over disclosures, such as emissions disclosures. 

Armanino's Audit Ally

Armanino also announced today new generative AI capacities in its custom-built data compliance assessment tool Audit Ally, which the firm uses to facilitate the SOC 2 process, particularly in the evidence submission and approval processes.

"At Armanino, we are leading the charge in unlocking the transformative power of AI in the accounting and consulting space," said Armanino CEO Matt Armanino. "Audit Ally is just one example of our team's commitment to deploying AI in smart ways to truly improve how we service our clients while maintaining the highest standards of quality and security. This is just the beginning of how we are reshaping the future of our industry to drive better outcomes for our clients."

With its new generative AI capabilities, Audit Ally can now summarize highly technical audit notes and translate them into actionable insights for clients, while keeping the auditor fully in control of the communications. It can also inform auditees in plain English about the progress of their assessment, missing information or improper documentation, creating a self-contained paper trail within the dashboard.

Audit Ally also integrated Intercom's Fin AI Agent, providing clients with responses to questions around their SOC 2 assessment from a trained chatbot. This chatbot can help immediately answer questions around progress, missing items, or alert and connect the client with an Armanino team member for a quick resolution.