Auditing With AI: Artificial Intelligence’s Influence on Key Dimensions of Auditing : A Swedish Qualitative Study

Sammanfattning

Background: Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly relevant part of the auditing profession and is changing how audit work is performed. While AI may support auditors in the audit process, it also raises questions about the auditor’s professional role. Since auditing depends on professional judgment, skepticism, responsibility and legitimacy, it is important to understand how these dimensions are affected when AI becomes part of audit. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how artificial intelligence influences auditing as a professional practice. More specifically, the study focuses on how AI affects professional judgment, professional skepticism, professional responsibility, and audit legitimacy, as well as whether new professional demands emerge. Method: This study uses a qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews with auditors in Swedish. The empirical material was analysed through thematic analysis, with contingency theory used as the theoretical foundation, as it helps explain how professional practices are shaped by technological and organizational conditions. Conclusion: The findings show that AI does not replace the auditor’s professional role, but changes conditions under which audit work is performed. AI influences professional judgment, skepticism, responsibility, and legitimacy by requiring auditors to evaluate AI-generated outputs, maintain human oversight, and ensure that audit work can be explained, documented, and reviewed. The study also identifies AI competence as a fifth professional dimension, as auditors need to understand, assess, and use AI tools in a professional context.