Integrated AI Capabilities Help Internal Audit Teams Move from Manual Sampling to Continuous, Risk-Aligned Assurance for Boards

NEW YORK: Diligent, the AI leader in governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS solutions, today announced AuditAI, a new suite of agentic AI capabilities debuting at The Institute of Internal Auditors GAM: Great Audit Minds 2026 conference. Building on the success of ACL AI and designed to work seamlessly with Smart Prep 360 in Diligent Boards, AuditAI shifts internal audit from reactive and administrative to proactive and strategic – automating execution while delivering continuous, risk-aligned assurance. It also gives general counsel and corporate secretaries clearer, more timely updates while providing boards with a more forward-looking view of emerging risks.

AuditAI automates the most time-consuming parts of the audit lifecycle, from planning to request and evidence management, helping internal audit teams move from manual, sample-based testing to continuous, risk-aligned assurance. Early adopters have reduced time spent on audit administration by approximately 70%, cutting audit cycles from roughly 120 hours of manual coordination to 35.

“Internal audit leaders are being asked to expand coverage, drive greater impact and provide contextual assurance while explaining risk in plain language to the board, all without adding headcount,” said Scott Bridgen, General Manager, Risk & Audit at Diligent. “AuditAI transforms risk signals and audit data from external sources into prioritized audit actions and converts those insights into clear, board-ready insights in Diligent Boards. Now, audit teams can spend less time chasing evidence and more time advising the business, while boards get a real-time, transparent view of how risks are being managed.”

Key Capabilities of AuditAI

AuditAI combines multiple agentic AI capabilities to modernize how internal audit plans, executes and reports work:

• AI planning and control intelligence: Suggests audit names, entities and assessment factors based on the organization’s risk profile, recommends controls for regulatory gaps and highlights regulatory changes that impact existing controls and testing.
• Contextualized AI: Understands relationships between risks, controls, audits and findings across the Diligent One Platform, answering complex questions with fully contextualized insight from risk identification through remediation and board reporting.
• AI-generated request and evidence management: Automatically generates context-aware lists and evidence demands based on audit scope, risk context, control requirements and prior year data, then routes, tracks and follows up on those requests, dramatically reducing manual email and spreadsheet work.
• Built for assurance: Applies agentic automation to the most manual parts of execution while keeping auditors in control of key decisions, with structured workflows, approvals and traceability that strengthen defensibility across audit, risk and compliance.

“Since deploying AuditAI, we’ve cut the time our managers spend chasing evidence by more than half and eliminated countless email chains and spreadsheets,” said Corey Lowry, Internal Audit Manager at Crown Castle. “Our audit program is far more efficient and responsive. We’re able to adapt plans as new risks emerge and focus our time on higher-value analysis instead of administrative follow-up.”

Smart Prep 360 and AuditAI: From Early Warning to Follow-Through

Boards and audit committees face mounting pressure to prevent the failures that have defined corporate governance crises; failures where warning signs were present but undetected. Too often, the challenge is not lack of signals, but a lack of systems to surface them, act on them and close the loop.

Smart Prep 360 reviews board and committee materials like an expert auditor and forensic accountant, surfacing accounting anomalies, control gaps, repeat findings and potential fraud indicators. It then turns them into clear, evidence-based questions for directors and audit leaders to address.

AuditAI takes those board-level signals and translates them into concrete audit actions, from generating risk-aware evidence requests to tracking remediation through closure. Together, Smart Prep 360 and AuditAI help close the gap between what boards see and how risks are resolved, giving organizations an AI-enabled early-warning layer and a connected assurance process from signal to remediation.

For more information about AuditAI, visit: diligent.com/AuditAI or visit us at booth 119 at IIA GAM.

About Diligent
Diligent is the AI leader in governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS solutions, helping more than 1 million users and 700,000 board members to clarify risk and elevate governance. The Diligent One Platform gives practitioners, the C-Suite and the board a consolidated view of their entire GRC practice so they can more effectively manage risk, build greater resilience and make better decisions, faster. Learn more at diligent.com

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Fonte: Business Wire