University of Kerbala Discussing an M.A. Thesis on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Audit Quality and its Effect on Investors’ Decisions

Faculty of Management and Economics / University of Kerbala has discussed the impact of artificial intelligence on quality of auditing and its effect on investors’ decisions, recommending the necessity of keeping pace with technological developments and responding to changes in surrounding environment.
The thesis, submitted by Rawaa Sabri Al-Masoudi, aims at explaining the impact of artificial intelligence in its dimensions (expert systems technology, machine learning technology, continuous auditing technology, natural language processing technology, robotic process automation technology) on quality of external auditing and investor’s decisions, as well as the impact of quality of external audit of investors’ decisions.
The study adopts the questionnaire as a tool for collecting data, as it is distributed to a sample of (155) respondents from accountants, auditors, chartered accountants, auditors, and financial managers working in accounting and auditing offices and Iraqi companies listed on Iraqi Stock Exchange.
The study finds out a statistically significant effect on the use of artificial intelligence techniques (expert systems, machine learning, continuous auditing, natural language processing, robotic process automation), as this effect appeared on all dimensions, indicating the importance of artificial intelligence applications in improving quality of auditing. The external audit also concludes a positive impact on the use of artificial intelligence techniques in developing investor’s decisions through quality of external auditing.
The study recommends the need to keep pace with technological developments and respond to changes in surrounding environment by developing their skills in artificial intelligence techniques, and the need for audit offices to move towards applying artificial intelligence techniques in performing their work by encouraging them to replace their manual systems with computerized systems to improve effectiveness of auditor’s performance, increase accuracy of the information, and reduce time of audit process.