Over four years ago, Sophia the humanoid robot told Khaleej Times in an interview that she wants to start a family. And yesterday, she revealed that she has a'family' now. The humanoid robot, who received Saudi citizenship, answered questions put up by audit professionals during the three-day 20th Annual Regional Audit Conference held at Dubai World Trade Centre from March 7 to 9. During the interaction, she also responded to public questions about whether robots will take over jobs of the humans and how artificial intelligence and robotics can help audit professionals. How was your Emirates flight to Dubai?

Audit services are traditionally viewed as compliance requirements by regulators or a way to instill confidence with a company's investors. As a result, the focus of the CFO might shift to minimizing costs and efforts in order to comply with the required audits. During the limited interactions with the audit committee or the company's CFO, how can auditors demonstrate their value as a trusted advisor that goes beyond traditional assurance to delivering valuable insights? How do auditors build strong working relationships with respective clients for future audit engagements? Leveraging MindBridge Ai Auditor, the audit team can enhance their Audit Findings Report or Audit Committee Presentations to include visualizations, reports, and trends analysis to better communicate the work performed by the audit team. Reports can be tailored to include areas that are beyond formal requirements to areas that would be of most interest to the audit committee or that the CFO would be most concerned about.

The digital revolution may be well into its prime, but the disruption is far from over. New and emerging technologies continue to shape (and reshape) how organizations operate and adapt to their customers. While these tools have opened the doors to new capabilities and market opportunities, they have also driven the need for stronger and more adaptive risk management strategies. No doubt, the pressure is on boards to ensure that adopting new technology does not come at the expense of the organization's security, efficiency, and bottom line. That includes the Audit Committee itself, which has the responsibility of overseeing that management has the right controls and processes in place (and they're being monitored) to safeguard the finance function from the technology risk.

Chairman and CEO Pierre Nanterme tells Forbes how his global consulting firm discovered that being a "fast follower" suddenly became fatally slow in the age of A.I. and cloud. Q: Describe your 35 years at Accenture, because I think talking about that will be an interesting way of describing what's happened to the global economy and the Information Technology backbone of the global economy during that time. Nanterme: Accenture has changed a lot during that time, probably undergoing a new wave that drove significant changes to the business every ten years. We evolved from management consulting to systems integration and technology. Ten years after that came a new wave--outsourcing. Indeed, each reinvention of Accenture was based on the new technology waves that occurred.

Like any algorithm- and data-driven process, artificial intelligence (AI) presents internal audit with a clear role in ensuring accuracy and reliability. It is important that boards and other stakeholders understand stages in the AI life cycle where internal audit's focus can provide positive effect. How can the board best support the CAE's efforts to ensure that the internal audit team is prepared to provide assurance over AI and capitalize on its efficiencies in appropriate audit plans and activities? Download the new issue and share it with your audit committee. To what extent does you internal audit function incorporate AI in its activities?