Audits on Algorithms
Once a year, those responsible for internal auditing in all sectors and areas meet to exchange information on current trends and developments. This year's National SVIR Conference took place in Thun on 16 and 17 May 2019 under the headline "Explore the Power of the Audit Diversity". True to this motto, almost 30 presentations were held, ranging from effective networking to the work of the SRF against fake news.
In the area of Audits & Assessments, Eraneos has set itself the goal of facilitating access to current technologies for those responsible for internal auditing in the field of corporate digitalisation and of developing possibilities for operationalising audit approaches.
Stefan Preuss, Head of Audits & Assessments, dedicated his presentation to the use of (complex) algorithms that increasingly influence corporate decision-making processes. Application scenarios such as solvency scoring, automated insurance decisions through to clinical decision support systems are finding their way into everyday corporate life and are showing ever smaller human interventions. Algorithms become more and more part of the critical risk assessment, are subject to compliance requirements or can be part of the due diligence process.
The challenge for Internal Audit is to include (or ignore) this technological development in its assessment competence.
In addition to the historical context, Stefan Preuss's lecture also showed the effects on the work of internal auditing in the assessment of algorithm-based decision systems and possible approaches to solutions.