Artificial intelligence in financial auditing: improving efficiency and addressing ethical and regulatory challenges
Laamari Imane · Brazilian Journal of Business · 2025
Artificial Intelligence has been increasingly reshaping the face of financial auditing for improved efficiency and effectiveness in fraud detection, serving also to strengthen stakeholder trust. This study examines the impact of adopting AI on audit practices, in terms of effectiveness in improving efficiency, fraud detection, ethical challenges, regulatory barriers, and stakeholder trust. In this paper, 460 professional auditors, accountants, and organizational stakeholders have been analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, and structural equation modeling. The results indicate that AI has a positive influence on efficiency, value creation, and fraud detection ability, while positively influencing stakeholder trust in organizations. However, ethical concerns from algorithmic bias to a lack of transparency and regulatory risks associated with compliance through data protection laws are also significant barriers. It thus concludes that AI has a enormous potential in revolutionizing auditing practices, and that addressing these barriers through training, transparent AI models, ethical safeguards, and supportive regulatory frameworks is also very important for its widespread adoption. Recommendations and future research avenues are presented to guide the responsible integration of AI into the auditing profession.