While grand, the profession of internal audit does not exist on the same scale as our universe. We believe the same principles and approaches can be applied to the universe of internal audit. There is much to learn from examining internal audit’s past — specifically, the last two decades — and applying this knowledge to propel the profession forward and enable our organizations' success. It’s even more powerful if we can conduct this examination by employing some of today’s advanced technologies.

For this 20th anniversary edition of Internal Auditing Around the World®, this is precisely what we have done. Using our firm’s proprietary generative AI tool, we undertook a technology-driven review of the past 19 volumes in the series, which collectively contain 244 profiles of leading internal audit functions — an analysis of more than 460,000 words of commentary and insights.

We would discover a great deal not just about how our profession has evolved over the past 20 years, but also about what the future may hold and how we can prepare to launch into it with confidence. Indeed, we found this history lesson brings into focus a clear path for CAEs to advance their internal audit functions and teams.

Focusing not on the specifics of what happened every year but rather on what has changed, our technology-enabled review revealed a number of themes and trends underscoring the transformation of internal audit functions. They fall into six categories, which we explore further in our paper. We also provide our guidance on how internal audit functions can rocket themselves into the future, navigating with increased confidence based on their journey over the last two decades.

The new edition of Internal Auditing Around the World addresses how internal audit functions can become future-ready and resilient.