What Auditors Will Ask About Your Use of AI

As finance teams increasingly use AI in their work, auditors are increasingly interested in how AI is used — because the use of AI in producing the financial information the auditor examines has implications for the reliability of that information and the controls around it. An auditor examining a finance function that uses AI will want to understand how AI is used, what controls govern it, and how the finance team ensures the AI-assisted work is sound — so that the auditor can assess the implications for the audit. For a finance team using AI, understanding what auditors will ask about AI, and being prepared to answer, helps the team demonstrate that its AI use is controlled and its work sound. This guide addresses what auditors will ask about your use of AI, helping a finance team anticipate and prepare for the auditor’s questions, and understand the controls and practices that good answers reflect.

This guide is written for finance teams and professionals whose work is audited and who use AI. It covers why auditors are interested in AI use, what auditors are likely to ask, what good answers and practices look like, how to prepare for the auditor’s questions on AI, and how using AI well positions the team for the audit. The aim is a practical understanding of what auditors will ask about AI and how to be prepared, so a finance team can demonstrate that its AI use is controlled and its work sound, which good AI practices, as covered throughout this Knowledge Centre, support.

Why Auditors Are Interested in AI Use

Auditors are interested in a finance team’s use of AI because it bears on the reliability of the financial information and the controls the auditor assesses. The audit examines the financial statements and the controls around them, forming a view on whether the statements are reliable, and where AI is used in producing the financial information — in the analysis, the preparation, the processes — the auditor wants to understand how, because AI use bears on how the information is produced and whether it is reliable. If AI contributes to the financial information, its use and the controls around it are relevant to the auditor’s assessment of that information.

Auditors are interested in AI use particularly because AI can produce plausible but wrong output, so the auditor wants to understand how the finance team ensures the AI-assisted work is nonetheless sound — the verification, the controls, the human oversight — because these determine whether the AI use undermines or maintains the reliability of the information. An auditor will want assurance that AI use is controlled and the resulting information reliable, not that AI is producing unverified output that flows into the financial statements. Understanding why auditors are interested in AI use — because it bears on the reliability of the information and the controls, and AI can be wrong — helps a finance team see what the auditor’s interest is about. The auditor’s interest is in the reliability of the AI-assisted information and the controls around the AI use, and understanding this is the basis for anticipating and answering their questions.

What Auditors Are Likely to Ask

An auditor examining a finance function that uses AI is likely to ask a range of questions about the AI use, and understanding them helps a finance team prepare. The auditor is likely to ask how AI is used — what AI is used for in the finance function, in which processes and tasks — to understand the extent and nature of the AI use and where it touches the financial information. The auditor will want a clear picture of how AI features in the work that produces the information they examine.

The auditor is likely to ask what controls govern the AI use — how the AI use is controlled, what safeguards apply, whether there is a policy — to assess whether the AI use is controlled or uncontrolled. The auditor is likely to ask how the finance team ensures the AI-assisted work is sound — how AI’s output is verified, how errors are guarded against, how the human oversight works — because this determines whether the AI-assisted information is reliable. The auditor may ask about the specific AI-assisted work that touches the financial statements, how particular figures or analyses involving AI were produced and verified. And the auditor may ask about data and the tools used. Understanding what auditors are likely to ask — how AI is used, what controls govern it, how the work is ensured sound, the specifics touching the statements — helps a finance team anticipate the questions. These questions centre on the extent, control, and soundness of the AI use, and anticipating them is the basis for being prepared.

What Good Answers and Practices Look Like

Good answers to the auditor’s questions reflect good AI practices, and understanding what they look like helps a finance team both answer well and use AI well. A good answer on how AI is used describes a considered, controlled use of AI — AI used deliberately for suitable tasks, within clear bounds — rather than an uncontrolled, ad hoc use, reflecting the controlled AI use that good practice involves. A good answer on the controls describes real controls governing the AI use — a policy, defined safeguards, clear responsibilities — reflecting the governed AI use that a policy and safeguards provide.

A good answer on ensuring the work is sound describes genuine verification and oversight — AI’s output verified, particularly anything consequential; the human firmly in the loop; errors guarded against — reflecting the verification and human oversight that safe AI use requires. A good answer on the specifics describes how particular AI-assisted work was produced and verified, showing the AI use was controlled and the output verified for the actual work touching the statements. These good answers — controlled use, real controls, genuine verification and oversight, verified specifics — reflect the good AI practices covered throughout this Knowledge Centre, which is why using AI well positions a team to answer the auditor well. Understanding what good answers and practices look like helps a finance team see that good AI practice and good audit answers go together. Good answers reflect good practices, and using AI well — controlled, governed, verified, with human oversight — is what enables a finance team to answer the auditor’s questions on AI well.

How to Prepare for the Auditor’s Questions on AI

A finance team can prepare for the auditor’s questions on AI, and doing so positions the team to demonstrate its AI use is sound. Preparing means being able to describe the team’s AI use clearly — what AI is used for, in what processes — so the team can answer how AI is used, which requires knowing and being able to articulate the team’s AI use. Preparing means having and being able to point to the controls governing the AI use — the policy, the safeguards, the responsibilities — so the team can demonstrate the AI use is controlled, which requires having those controls in place, as covered in the guidance on AI usage policies.

Preparing means being able to show how the AI-assisted work is ensured sound — the verification, the oversight — so the team can demonstrate the work is reliable, which requires actually verifying and overseeing the AI-assisted work. And preparing means being able to address the specifics — how particular AI-assisted work touching the statements was produced and verified — which requires keeping track of how such work was done. A finance team that prepares this way — able to describe the use, point to the controls, show the verification, address the specifics — is positioned to answer the auditor’s questions on AI and demonstrate its AI use is sound. Preparing for the auditor’s questions on AI is largely a matter of using AI well and being able to describe and evidence it, and doing so is how a finance team demonstrates to the auditor that its AI use is controlled and its work sound. Understanding how to prepare for the auditor’s questions on AI helps a finance team be ready. Preparing for the auditor’s questions, by using AI well and being able to describe and evidence it, is how a finance team positions itself for the audit of its AI-assisted work.

How Using AI Well Positions the Team for the Audit

Using AI well positions a finance team for the audit of its AI use, because good AI practice is what the auditor’s questions are looking for. A finance team that uses AI well — in a controlled, governed way, with verification and human oversight, protecting its data — has, by virtue of that good practice, the good answers to the auditor’s questions and the sound AI-assisted work the auditor wants to see. Good AI practice and readiness for the auditor’s questions are therefore closely aligned: the team that uses AI well is the team prepared for the audit of its AI use.

This means that the best preparation for the auditor’s questions on AI is to use AI well throughout — establishing the controlled use, the governance, the verification, and the oversight that good practice involves — because this produces both the sound AI-assisted work and the good answers the auditor seeks. A finance team focused on using AI well, as this Knowledge Centre’s guidance describes, is thereby positioning itself for the audit, rather than needing separate preparation. Conversely, a team using AI poorly — uncontrolled, unverified — will struggle to answer the auditor well, because the good answers reflect good practice it lacks. Understanding how using AI well positions the team for the audit — because good practice provides the sound work and good answers the auditor seeks — reinforces the value of using AI well. Using AI well is the best preparation for the audit of AI use, because it produces the controlled, verified, sound AI-assisted work that the auditor’s questions are looking for, and a finance team that uses AI well is thereby ready to demonstrate it to the auditor. This connects to the guidance on AI usage policies and human-in-the-loop AI controls.

Documenting AI Use for the Audit

A practical aspect of being prepared for the auditor’s questions on AI is documenting the AI use, because documentation helps the team demonstrate its controlled, verified AI use to the auditor. Documentation of the AI use — recording what AI is used for, the controls and policy governing it, and how AI-assisted work is verified — gives the team evidence to show the auditor, demonstrating that the AI use is controlled and the work verified, rather than relying on assertion alone. For AI-assisted work touching the financial statements, documentation of how it was produced and verified is particularly valuable, showing the auditor how the specific work was done and checked.

Good documentation of AI use aligns with good practice generally — a team that uses AI in a controlled, governed, verified way naturally has the policy, the records, and the evidence that document the use — so documenting AI use is largely a matter of maintaining the records that good AI practice produces. The documentation need not be burdensome, but having a clear record of the AI use, the controls, and the verification positions the team to demonstrate its AI use to the auditor with evidence. A finance team that documents its AI use is better placed to answer the auditor’s questions with evidence than one that must rely on assertion; documentation supports the demonstration that the AI use is sound. Understanding the value of documenting AI use for the audit helps a finance team prepare to demonstrate its AI use. Documenting the AI use, the controls, and the verification is a practical way to be prepared for the auditor’s questions, providing the evidence that supports good answers, and it aligns with the good AI practice that produces sound, auditable work.