Audit and advisory professionals are used to change. New standards, new systems, new client expectations. But AI is different. It’s not just another tool. It’s reshaping how work gets done, and what practitioners are expected to deliver.
As firms adopt AI into more parts of the engagement lifecycle, experienced auditors, especially partners and senior managers, are fielding more questions. From staff. From clients. From peers. And the questions aren’t about hype. They’re about trust, quality, and the future of the profession.
At Fieldguide, we work with firms leading this industry transformation every day. Below are four practical questions industry leaders should ask as they cut through the AI jargon.
1. “How Do We Know Client Data Is Still Secure with AI in the Mix?”
It’s a fair question, and often the first one firm leaders ask.
The answer starts with governance. The best AI platforms don’t just protect data, they give firms complete control over how AI is used, by whom, and when. At Fieldguide, our AI is embedded within a secure environment with sophisticated controls for access, privacy, and data segregation. Fieldguide undergoes a SOC 2 exam annually and aligns our AI management practices with ISO 42001 standards, ensuring our organization’s AI systems meet globally recognized requirements for responsible AI use.
No data is used to train public models. No shortcuts on risk management and compliance.
Firms aren’t giving up control. They’re gaining tools that enhance the controls necessary to operate. AI doesn’t compromise client trust—it reinforces it when implemented responsibly.
2. “Will AI Change the Quality of the Audit?”
Yes – AI actually has the ability to improve quality. AI’s impact on quality is a very common topic, especially when technology is doing more of the work.
In reality, properly built AI platforms make audits better. When you automate the parts most prone to human error, like matching evidence to samples, tying out PDFs, or documenting findings, you reduce the noise and surface what matters. Teams spend less time on checklists and more time on risk, judgment, and client-specific insight. That’s not a trade-off. It’s a quality gain.
At Fieldguide, this isn’t theoretical – it’s happening in practice. Fieldguide’s Audit Testing Agent automates up to 70% of testing steps. Firms worldwide are cutting total audit hours while improving documentation quality and audit trails. BerryDunn, for example, saw up to 50% efficiency gains after modernizing workflows. They doubled engagement capacity and reduced confusion across teams.
But those results only come from AI that’s purpose-built. Generic tools don’t understand audit methodology and can add complexity rather than efficiency. Fieldguide’s AI is embedded across the audit lifecycle, from test plan design to documentation review. It’s built to work the way firms actually operate.
The result is faster audits, deeper insight, and higher confidence in the work being delivered. That’s what quality looks like in the AI era.
3. “What Does This Mean for Staff Development?”
This is one of the most thoughtful concerns firm leaders raise. For decades, junior team members have learned by doing the manual work. What happens when AI does the manual work instead of practitioners?
It’s important to remember that, when used correctly, AI creates capacity for critical thinking, rather than removing it. Fieldguide’s AI, no matter how advanced, keeps humans in the loop precisely to handle the parts of the audit that require judgment and analysis. We don’t ask AI to think for the practitioner, we ask it to automate the mundane tasks so the auditor actually has the time to think.
What we’re seeing is a fundamental shift of the audit and advisory career path. Instead of spending months formatting workpapers or validating PDF evidence, early-career staff are being trained to direct audit strategy, review AI outputs, and help translate findings into client recommendations. By automating the rule-based tasks of the audit, staff spend more time in analysis and can actually upskill faster.
New roles are emerging: AI coordinators, methodology analysts, workflow designers. These are skillsets the next generation wants to build, and the profession needs to thrive for the next 20 years. The fundamentals still matter. But how they’re taught—and what they lead to—is evolving for the better.
4. “Is This Really Going to Help with Capacity? Or Just Add Complexity?”
It’s a skeptical but honest question. Firms have been promised “efficiency” before, only to end up with yet another disjointed point solution to manage when they’re already short on time and resources.
That’s why how AI is delivered matters just as much as what it can do. Fieldguide’s AI is built directly into firms’ workflows, test plans, and documentation. It works the way firms already operate instead of how technology vendors think they should. Fieldguide AI operates faster, more consistently, and with detailed audit trails.
Firms using Fieldguide are reducing hours spent on testing by up to 70%, while enhancing quality. Not by cutting corners, but by removing the work that slows teams down and doesn’t add client value. Firms have found that in the face of a failing talent pipeline, they can’t hire their way out of capacity constraints and AI allows them to reroute uniquely human expertise to the most important part of the audit.
This is real capacity gain. And it’s enabling firms to serve more clients, with less burnout.
Final Thought: Trust Is Still the Point
The audit profession runs on trust. That’s not changing. But how we protect and scale that trust, especially in the face of growing complexity and a shrinking talent pool, requires new tools and new thinking.
At Fieldguide, we didn’t stumble upon the CPA industry chasing a trend –we came from it. I started my career as an auditor, and so did many people at Fieldguide. We’ve lived the late nights, the cluttered inboxes, the pressure to do more with less. We left the profession only to return with one goal: to build the AI platform we wish we had.
That’s why Fieldguide AI isn’t bolted on. It’s built-in natively, purpose-built for audit and advisory from the very beginning. Secure by design. Embedded in firm workflows. Focused on quality, not shortcuts.
Other tools may use AI for the sake of AI. We use it to fix the work. To relieve the pressure. To give time back to teams and restore space for the judgment, rigor, and client impact that define the profession at its best.
The firms leading the AI era are cutting through the noise and making intentional decisions. They’re choosing partners who understand the stakes because they’ve lived them. Partners who don’t treat AI as an afterthought, but offer professional-grade AI that’s deeply integrated into the end-to-end audit lifecycle. Fieldguide equips ambitious audit and advisory firms with industry-leading agentic AI in an all-in-one engagement platform designed for how firms actually work. We’re proud to support these fearless leaders every step of the way.
Jin Chang
CEO & Co-Founder
Increasing trust with AI for audit and advisory firms.
