2024 Audit Plan Hot Spots

Gartner, a research and consulting firm based in the U.S., released its 2024 report identifying key risk areas that are expected to be in focus this year for audit plans.

Gartner gathered data from interviews and surveys of its network of clients, including more than 100 chief audit executives, as well as research of secondary literature. 

The Gartner 2024 Audit Plan Hot Spots results show three underlying themes:
1) cost and growth pressures
2) increasing fragility and
3) heightened accountability.

2024 Audit Plan Hot Spots

• Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities *
• IT Governance *
• Regulatory Complexity
• Digital Transformation
• Organizational Resilience *
• Third Parties *
• Supply Chain *
• Employee Well-Being and Satisfaction *
• Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) *
• Social and Political Tensions
• Generative AI (GenAI)
• Macroeconomic Uncertainty *

* Hot spots denoted with an asterisk represent those recurring from 2023.

What probably comes as no surprise is the recurrence of cyber, IT governance, and supply chain hot spots. These points have been at the forefront of many audit plans for several years and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Concerns about economic uncertainty have shifted towards the macroeconomic environment over the last couple of years. Human capital also remains a consistent audit focus due to the tight labor market and tension surrounding the shift back to in-person work.

Though AI has made Gartner’s list previously, the release of ChatGPT has introduced additional concerns over governing and monitoring employee use of GenAI and about how reliable the output is. Reputational risk is also not new as an audit focus, but is now manifesting through social and political tensions. Global social unrest is challenging many companies to consider how and where they do business, as well as how they’re perceived as related to social and political issues.

The release of this list each year is meant to serve as a benchmark for audit plan coverage and to drive discussions around risk – both emerging and recurring.

For the complete report, click here to download Gartner 2024 Audit Plan Hot Spots.

Interested in learning more about audit trends? Contact our Risk Advisory Services team.

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