Chartered Skilled Accountants (CPAs) are “uniquely positioned” to fill the belief hole in AI, in line with a joint publication from CPA Canada and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA).
The findings come from the third and ultimate paper in CPA Canada and the AICPA’s AI collection, known as Closing the AI belief hole: The position of the CPA in AI assurance.
As AI turns into extra built-in into every day life, issues about privateness, bias, and misuse are rising. The paper highlights how CPA-led assurance providers can handle key AI dangers.
Unbiased assurance, a long-standing service offered by CPAs in high-risk areas, is likely one of the best methods to construct belief.
CPA Canada AI professional and co-author of the paper Melissa Robertson mentioned: “Confidence in AI is not only about easing public concern, it’s important to lowering the danger of economic loss, regulatory penalties and reputational harm.
“These dangers are particularly excessive in Canada, the place AI literacy ranks among the many lowest on this planet.”
Assurance provides third-party validation that complicated programs are designed and working as supposed, and this experience is now being prolonged to AI.
“We now have well-established processes, skilled requirements and instruments to make sure high quality,” Robertson added.
“As a regulated occupation grounded in belief, CPAs convey the talents, oversight and objectivity that AI programs demand.”
CPAs apply assurance and compliance frameworks to assist organisations assess important applied sciences, together with HR platforms, monetary programs, and cloud-based storage providers.
These evaluations utilise CPA auditing practices and instruments such because the system and organisation controls (SOC) suite, addressing areas similar to safety, privateness, and reliability.
“Most organisations already depend on SOC experiences to validate their programs,” in line with Robertson.
“Now we’re seeing rising demand from main gamers for a similar stage of assurance round AI. At the moment, many CPA companies are nonetheless exploring AI assurance as a service—tomorrow, they are going to be delivering it.”
The Future Prepared Accountant Report by Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting in February 2025, revealed that AI is predicted to considerably impression the accounting occupation.
Nonetheless, it isn’t but a high technique amongst companies figuring out as innovators or early adopters.
Solely 27% of tax and accounting professionals presently use Generative AI, with 22% planning adoption inside the subsequent yr.
Regardless of AI’s potential advantages, similar to process automation and price discount, issues about information safety, accuracy, and implementation prices persist.
