Cherry Bekaert: Risk & Cybersecurity · Cherry Bekaert

A Guide to IIA's Vision 2035 for Audit Teams

·22 min·10 clips

The episode opens the first installment of Cherry Becker's four-part Risk Advisory series for Internal Audit Awareness Month. James Eldridge hosts Scott Payton and sets the frame around the IIA's Vision 2035 report, which had also been highlighted at the recent Mid-Atlantic IIA District Conference by Anthony Pugliese, President and CEO of the IIA. The discussion starts from the idea that internal audit is moving into a different operating environment. Technology is no longer treated as an add-on. It is part of the profession's future fabric. Scott Payton argues that if audit teams do not embrace these technologies, the value they provide will diminish over time. He ties that point to the report's survey findings. Ninety-seven percent of respondents believe new technology will help auditors manage more complex data. Seventy-four percent say AI is crucial to the profession's ideal future. The episode does not stop at technology for its own sake. It shifts to the harder question of data access. Reliable, real-time data is presented as the prerequisite for making technology useful in the first place. Payton raises practical questions about whether audit teams can access a data lake and whether they sit alongside other enterprise consumers of data. The conversation then turns to adoption. Payton describes the tipping point as the moment when a team stops trying new tools in isolated engagements and starts using them as part of everyday work. That change matters because experimentation alone does not create durable value. The episode also points toward internal audit becoming more of a strategic advisor, with technology helping support that shift. It closes by pointing listeners toward the next three parts of the series, which will cover the top three critical skills for internal audit, data analytics, and how to audit AI. The overall message is steady and practical: future readiness depends on technology adoption, usable data, and a willingness to change operating habits before the profession is forced to do so.

As heard by us

A plainspoken look at how internal audit may change as technology becomes harder to ignore.

James Eldridge and Scott Payton spend this episode on the IIA's Vision 2035 report and what it means for internal audit as technology keeps moving into the work.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a grounded conversation about Vision 2035 and where internal audit is headed, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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