Deloitte Ireland Says Its Audit and Assurance Professionals Remain Responsible for Challenging and Validating the Outputs of Technology

Deloitte Ireland published its 2026 Transparency Report in September 2026. Its chief executive's foreword, and a section headed "Strengthening A&A quality through AI-enabled innovation," both speak about AI. A&A is the report's short form for Deloitte Audit & Assurance. Parts of those follow, not the whole report.

The Foreword

The foreword says that over the past year the firm has accelerated its ambition "to become an AI-first organisation," recognizing what it calls "the responsibility that comes with its adoption." For audit, it says, AI, advanced analytics and automation can help the firm's people interrogate information at greater scale, identify patterns and anomalies more effectively, and focus more of their time on the areas "where human judgement, professional scepticism and experience matter most."

It also asks a question of the profession: "how should auditing standards and regulators respond as AI becomes increasingly capable of both producing and interrogating the information that underpins an audit?" As organizations automate more of their financial processes, and as AI becomes capable of undertaking increasingly sophisticated analysis, it says, "the profession will need to consider what this means for the nature and execution of an audit, the evidence on which auditors rely and ultimately the assurance that stakeholders expect."

On its own use of AI, the foreword describes a framework "designed to ensure that innovation is accompanied by appropriate governance, controls and human oversight." "Central to this is the importance of keeping the human in the loop." The firm's approach, it says, "remains human-led and technology-enabled."

AI-Enabled Innovation in Audit and Assurance

That section reports "the introduction of an embedded network of intelligent agents" within Deloitte's global cloud-based platform, which it says supports teams with context-aware insights and real-time workflow assistance. Throughout, the section says, the principle of a human in the loop "remains paramount."

The section says, "These capabilities are designed to augment, not replace, professional judgement: A&A professionals and practitioners remain responsible for challenging and validating the outputs of technology, ensuring that technology serves as an enabler of quality rather than a replacement for critical thinking or professional scepticism."

Augment, not replace.

The section says the firm's people have access to regular and targeted learning "that addresses both the value and limitations of AI-enabled technologies," and that this learning "reinforces the importance of human oversight." Its training and talent model, the section says, is designed to equip teams to use technology and also to apply professional skepticism, challenge estimates, assess disclosures, understand automated assurance workflows, and investigate exceptions or anomalies identified through digital capabilities.

And on supervision, it says that direction, supervision and review principles are embedded within both the firm's technology and its methodologies, "extending not only to AI-enabled solutions but to many facets of digital engagement execution."