Harnessing the power of AI to transform the detection of fraud and error
Setting the scene
PwC has invested significantly in pioneering the use of artificial intelligence for the audit and has partnered with H2O.ai, a leading Silicon Valley-based AI company.
Following 18 months of development, the first outcome of this partnership is PwC’s GL.ai, the first module of PwC’s Audit.ai - an award-winning, revolutionary bot that does what humans can’t. Its AI analyses billions of different data points in seconds and applies judgement to detect anomalies in general ledger transactions.
GL.ai was awarded International Accounting Bulletin's presitgious 'Audit Innovation of the Year' in October 2017.
“The reason this is such a brilliant tool is the ability to look at different risks in context at the same time. For example, it would be uneconomical for an auditor to look at every single user’s pattern of activity and decide what was unusual. With GL.ai, the algorithms do it for us.”
How we helped
GL.ai harnesses PwC’s global knowledge and experience and embeds it into algorithms developed and trained to replicate the decision-making process of our expert auditors. It examines every uploaded transaction, every user, every amount and every account to find unusual (indicating potential error or fraud) transactions in the general ledger without bias or variability. And the more we use GL.ai, the smarter it gets.
The prototype of GL.ai is now being trialled on audits in Canada, Germany, Sweden and the UK.
Impact
Experience to date confirms that it speeds up the audits process, gives clients and audit teams greater comfort that attention is given to areas of true risk, and generates additional insights that help to boost efficiency for both auditor and company, unrestricted by the limited detail that could be identified from the previous sampling approach.
Development is underway with the next modules of PwC's Audit.ai set to revolutionise the audit, enhancing client service, quality and efficiency. It will also enhance the experience of our people allowing them more time to engage in high-level thinking, creativity, and decision-making.
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