1. Integrating AI into accounting workflows

AI is a major theme in several sessions in the conference, including an opening keynote by UK tech entrepreneur Priya Lakhani, founder of award-winning AI education technology company Century Tech and the Institute for Ethical AI in Education.

Drawing on her experience building AI systems and advising governments and businesses, Lakhani will show why accountants and auditors are uniquely positioned to lead AI strategies, anticipate disruption and guide their organisations. Her keynote will also identify the core mechanics of AI to help accountants recognise the high-value applications of the technology that are already possible.

In a recent keynote at the Oslo Business Forum, Lakhani urged every company “to be an AI company,” stressing that data is the bedrock for achieving value from AI projects.

“Think about every single bit of data in your business, who you hire, how much churn you have, how much you spend,” she said. “Where is that information? What you can do with data science and machine learning is to start to make sense of it, and the lifeblood of AI is the data.”

AI, she says, offers an “objective crystal ball into the future” on issues around future demand and supply, and supply chain resilience.

“From there you can have a discussion with your team,” she said. “Do we have the people, do we have the data and do we have the infrastructure. That is a high-level way to look at your current strategy and think ‘where does AI help me?’.”

2. The finance team’s cybersecurity challenge

The AI opportunity comes hand in hand with heightened cybersecurity and fraud risks. As Acuity explored in ‘Same fish, different wrapper: how AI scaled the art of the scam’, the new tech is being used to improve scams and hacks, and make more convincing fakes.

For accountants and auditors, improved shallow fakes and deepfakes increase the risk of fraud, as CAs can no longer take documents, videos or audio recordings at face value. In response, teams need to develop new fraud detection and mitigation strategies.

Blake Deakin, cyber risk and insurance client executive at Aon, and Ashwani Ram, GM of cybersecurity and IT operations at CA ANZ, will use the 2025 ARUP deepfake video case as a starting point to consider what CAs need to do to counter these enhanced cyber threats.

3. Sustainability: measurement and reporting

Both Australia and New Zealand have mandatory sustainability reporting for large enterprises, but even small businesses can be caught in the scope 3 net if they are in the supply chain of larger companies. Businesses not only need to measure their carbon emissions, but also consider how their natural capital can both be protected and unlock future value.

As Acuity has explored in ‘ESG reporting and the data challenge’, it’s also an audit challenge to get accurate data from every supplier and even large businesses themselves.

Across multiple sessions at the Accounting & Audit conferences, experts including Wali Aziz FCA from Walker Wayland and Victoria Ashplant CA from PwC New Zealand will discuss how to put ISSA 5000 into practice. Plus, other panellists will review how to ensure that what organisations say about their sustainability status and efforts is reflected in their financial results.

4. Digital financial reporting

Australian and New Zealand businesses have enjoyed the luxury of optional digital reporting, but this is beginning to cost them – and the wider economy – in terms of the cost and availability of capital. This is a key message from Wes Bricker, the US-based global assurance leader for PwC, who says that with 70 countries around the world adopting mandatory digital reporting, Australasia is currently an outlier.

Bricker is one of the panellists on the issue of digital reporting at a session at the CA ANZ Accounting & Audit conferences on 20–21 May.

“Every major market that has made the move to digital has seen real capital markets benefits,” says Bricker. “In my conference session, I want to talk about what that inaction might be costing and what it will take to change it.”

Bricker says regulators “hold powerful levers” on this issue. Given the slow uptake under a voluntary regime, he suggests it is time for mandatory regulation.

He also says the advent of AI is adding a new dimension to digital reporting, and widening the gap between those jurisdictions where it is mandatory and where it is not.

“I want to challenge the idea that that AI makes digital reporting unnecessary because it’s actually just the opposite,” he says. “AI makes digital reporting essential.”

Digital reporting, says Bricker, creates structured data which is easier for AI models to analyse, enabling companies which report digitally to attract capital from more diverse sources.

This also lowers the cost of capital.

“The risk of not moving to digital reporting is straightforward,” says Bricker. “If a company’s financial data cannot be automatically processed, then it becomes harder to analyse. Institutional investors around the world run automated screens across thousands of companies and if your data is not in a structured form, then that means you are simply not in their universe, and that means you have a smaller pool of potential investors and, ultimately, a higher cost of capital.”

5. Greater auditor responsibility

Recent standards changes such as ISA 240 and ISA 570 have expanded the responsibilities of auditors to challenge the information they receive from clients, and to detect and expose potential fraud. That requires a new mindset and new procedures to help detect fraud scenarios, say event speakers Leonard W Vona from Fraud Auditing Inc. and Nicola Hankinson FCA from Baker Tilly Staples Rodway.

They and other speakers will also consider whether the revised standards increase audit risk and further expose auditors to regulatory scrutiny and liability.

Other aspects of increased auditor and accountant responsibility include anti-money laundering measures, as well as meeting the ethical expectations people have of CAs. These are both topics that will be explored at the conferences.