Intelligent Process Automation in Audit Abigail Zhang Continuous Auditing & Reporting Lab Rutgers Business School 43rd WCARS 11/03/18

Overview Motivation IPA in Audit The three frameworks IPA Implementation in audit “Auditor-in-the-loop” IPA ecosystem Audit workflow driven by IPA Ongoing and future research

Motivation IPA RPA Other Intelligent flexible scalable Objective: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) IPA RPA Other AI/CC Cannot process unstructured data Cannot handle fuzzy and complex rules Cannot process exceptions Cannot adapt to changes Intelligent flexible scalable IPA expands RPA by AI, cognitive computing, and other technologies to make the process automation scalable, flexible, and intelligent. Objective: Establish a framework and prototype of implementing IPA in audit, and evaluate them.

Intelligent process automation IPA in Audit Intelligent process automation Artificial intelligence Machine learning Computer vision Virtual agent NLP/ NLG Others RPA Cognitive computing Other technologies Data analytics Drones Smart contracts Blockchain IoT IPA is an ecosystem of technologies that brings automation to the next level.

The “Sense-Think-Act” loop of IPA Unlike RPA, which can only execute pre-programed procedures, IPA can “sense,” “think” and “act.” The data and information “sensed” by …will be forwarded to the thinking part. In thinking, when the AI and cc are not able to deal with certain tasks, it will forward them to a human and learn from what the human does. Then the thinking part will give order to the acting part, where the RPA will … If necessary, the sensing part will again obtain data from what’s been executed from acting, closing the loop and starting the circle again. Adapted from UiPath (2017)

Framework of Implementing IPA in Audit 1. Identify the task type: structured, semi-structured, or unstructured 2. Is the audit task automatable? And will it be automated? 3. If yes, then granulize the task into small steps 4. Choose the suitable automation tools for each step 5. Orchestrate automated audit steps (redesign if needed) 6. Prototyping and implementing

The “Auditor-in-the-Loop” IPA Ecosystem

The Audit Workflow Driven by IPA

Ongoing and Future Research Ongoing research RPA component of the IPA ecosystem Implementations in audits Impacts on audits Future (not too far) research AI+RPA in audits Implementations Impacts

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” -Albert Einstein Thank you!