The need for the audit to develop in new and innovative ways has been a clear theme in discussions with stakeholders and investors, and with KPMG audit partners across our global network. They are in no doubt that innovation around inputs and outputs is absolutely critical in order for the audit to stay relevant. But what form must this innovation take? We can envisage a ‘quantum leap’ through data & analytics technologies - enabling the analysis of unstructured data, the ability to draw correlations across massive amounts of data, advancing the identification of any outliers or anomalies for further investigation, and the delivery of more granular insights to companies and their audit committees. The innovation challenge for auditors, therefore, is a broad one.
