Europe’s first adopter of the MindBridge Ai Auditor ™ solution, Kingston Smith is rivalling global firms in the application of AI technology, while debunking the misconception that AI benefits come at a multi-million pound price tag.
Becky Shields, Partner, Kingston Smith, explains: “There has been much hype around AI to date, but a by-product of that has been a perception that it is costly and complicated to implement, which needn’t be the case. There are huge gains to be made by incorporating AI into the audit process and we are taking the lead in working with MindBridge Ai to enhance these benefits so that they are accessible to all.”
As internal financial loss across multiple organisations continue to make headlines around the world, current audit processes, based on sampling methods and rule-based tools, are coming under increasing scrutiny. Through the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, the MindBridge Ai Auditor has the ability to uncover material irregularities in data that are a result of human error – or intent – by monitoring for anomalous patterns of activity and continually learning the norm.
“Rather than our trainees using random number sampling or trying to pick risky transactions out of a large data set,” says Becky, “the MindBridge Ai Auditor ranks all transactions on perceived risk. This stands up to scrutiny by the regulators and offers a robust, objective reasoning for each sample selected. The solution will also become more accurate at assessing the riskiness of transactions over time, with the ability to build a more in-depth profile of a ‘normal transaction’ from the data, and to learn from the weighting applied to each risk factor by us.”
AI can identify complex, nonlinear patterns in large data sets in real time and at scale. By adopting this technology, auditors also stand to benefit from increased speed and efficiency, while adding even more value to the audit process. “At Kingston Smith, we can now look at our clients’ data as a whole, as opposed to as a sample, which has enabled us to take a more consultative approach with our clients and add greater value to the conversations we are having with them,” Becky concludes. “We want all of our clients to benefit from the insight that AI can provide, regardless of their size.”
Eli Fathi, CEO, MindBridge Ai, comments: "The financial crisis of 2008 led to an increased focus on managing risk and compliance and the industry has been looking for new ways to adapt ever since. AI now presents one of the biggest opportunities for the auditing world to meet this demand for regulatory change head on by improving the accuracy and granularity of statistical analysis, and we are delighted to be working with Kingston Smith to democratise its benefits in the UK market.”
News of the first UK deployment in a public account firm follows the announcement that MindBridge Ai was selected by the Bank of England as part of its FinTech Accelerator, in which it has since completed a Proof of Concept to prove the analytical value of artificial intelligence tools in anomaly detection in anonymised credit union datasets. MindBridge Ai has recently commenced a second project with the Bank of England.
