Speaking at a briefing at its New York office, Shawn Panson, PwC’s US assurance transformation leader, said the firm is on track to complete its rollout of AI tools by 2026, covering every stage of the audit cycle from planning and risk assessment through to evidence testing and financial statement review.

Shawn Panson said the technology would deliver gains in both efficiency and quality, and that the pace of development had accelerated sharply in recent months, Accounting Today reports.

PwC has already introduced Simplified Audit for Private Business, a new planning tool that draws on prior-year information to automatically populate audit documents in line with AICPA standards. 

The system helps auditors identify changes in a client’s business since the last audit and focus their questioning accordingly. It is designed for use with private company audits and is being deployed for the first time this year.

The firm is also preparing to release an AI-driven risk assessment tool to guide auditors on which areas to prioritise.

PwC’s Advanced Walkthrough Assistant is already up and running. The software analyses existing and current-year documentation to create bespoke work plans, flagging missing information and highlighting any changes since the previous audit.

Jennifer Kosar, PwC US’s AI assurance leader, said the tool addressed one of the more time-consuming stages of the audit process. She said: “In large global businesses, it can be difficult to trace transactions from start to finish. Even if systems remain stable year to year, auditors still have to confirm that nothing has changed.”

Additional automation is being developed for controls testing, building on the firm’s existing Evidence Match platform which is an agent-led audit module that automatically extracts matching and validating evidence against documents. Integration with the assurance skills library allows the software to support testing in high-volume areas such as cash, accounts receivable and accounts payable. Each match includes a clear evidence trail and everything is documented and organised. 

Further innovation is underway at the Audit Innovation Hub, currently being trialled with certain asset and wealth management teams. The platform automates aspects of financial statement tie-outs and related testing, particularly for fund-to-fund audits under AICPA standards. PwC expects to extend the pilot in the coming months.

Shawn Panson concluded: “For calendar ‘26, that is our hope. We have work to do, but you can see how it all comes together for ‘26 in an integrated fashion.”

He added that the tools will then be built into “one global new agentic platform for all our practitioners across PwC and global assurance, which we expect to have our within the next year and a half after that”.