MINISTER of Finance and the Public Service Fayval Williams says auditors will be using more artificial intelligence (AI) tools to carry out their duties.

“The Government will accelerate its deployment of technology in auditing by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency, accuracy and insights into the organisational, financial and operational landscape,” Williams said.

She was speaking during the annual Audit Committees’ Conference at The Summit in Kingston on Thursday.

Williams shared some of the ways in which she expects the technology to be used.

“It can be used to be predictive; it can identify trends and patterns in financial data that may signal potential risks or fraud. AI can be used to identify unusual transactions or deviations from established financial patterns, flagging them for review before they lead to significant issues. It can be used to automate the analysis of large volumes of financial and operational data, thus allowing you to perform deeper reviews without requiring intensive manual work,” she said.

“AI tools can help to model various financial scenarios based on historical data and market trends, allowing audit committees to better understand the potential risks and impact on future financial health,” she added.

The minister emphasised that in a rapidly changing technological landscape, the Government must ensure that all the audit committees stay at the forefront of innovation, so that they can better anticipate and help to mitigate emerging threats, while enhancing the efficiency and transparency of the public purse.

Meanwhile, Williams mandated the audit committees to include an environmental, social and governance (ESG) component in their reports.

She said reporting on ESG is the global trend, noting that it serves as an indicator that the Government is taking a wholistic approach to development.

“I’ve seen audit and financial reports from private sector companies, and they have a couple of pages talking about their environmental, social and governance audit that has been done, and it’s going to become real for us in the years ahead. So, I want to alert you to it,” Williams stated.

An ESG audit is a comprehensive evaluation of a company’s practices in relation to environmental, social and governance criteria.

It evaluates how a business manages and reports on sustainability and impact across the three key areas.

— JIS