On Friday 18 November from 16.00 - 17.00 hrs, FAR will organize a FAR Young Auditing Academic Brown Bag Seminar by Christian Peters (Tilburg University).

He will present his paper Auditor Automation Usage and Professional Skepticism from research project 2020B03 (15-20 minutes). This research paper will then be discussed (10 minutes) by Renske Evers (Deloitte / Erasmus). The session will end with an extensive Q&A part (35 minutes). 

Audit firms increasingly employ automated tools and techniques in auditing procedures. The premise of using automation is that it increases audit effectiveness and audit efficiency. For these effectiveness and efficiency gains to materialize, auditors need to use automation in an adequate manner. Regulators, however, have raised concerns that auditors may over- or under-rely on automation. I predict that auditors are subject to an automation bias and use cues from automated tools and techniques as a replacement for vigilant information seeking, thereby reducing professional skepticism when relying on automation. My findings are in line with my predictions. When auditors rely on work conducted by automated tools and techniques, they are less skeptical than when relying on the same work conducted by an audit team member. Based on psychology theory, I employ a counterarguing mindset intervention that alleviates the negative effects of automation on professionally skepticism. Finally, I also test whether a reduction in vigilance caused by automation usage spills over to subsequent tasks. I do not find evidence indicating a spillover effect. Implications for practice and theory are discussed.

The seminar is by invitation only, junior faculty and young academics can reach out to FAR to apply for an invitation (info@foundationforauditingresearch.org)