Global accounting and tax services firm Grant Thornton LLP has deployed a new tool to help its internal audit, compliance and other risk management professionals streamline their clients’ control design and assessment processes. The tool, which the firm calls Grant Thornton CompliAI, utilizes generative artificial intelligence (AI), and was developed using Microsoft technology, including Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.

“The Grant Thornton CompliAI tool arrives at a time when businesses face numerous risks both inside and outside of their organizations,” says Ethan Rojhani, a Risk Advisory partner at Grant Thornton. “As a result, they need better ways to create risk and compliance management frameworks, and to design and implement the most relevant controls.”

Rojhani explains that Grant Thornton’s new tool allows its professionals to “more effectively and efficiently develop complex risk and compliance systems for clients — ones that are capable of processing many dynamic factors.” The tool, he says, works by combining Grant Thornton’s extensive global controls library with generative AI models and features, including AI analysis, ranking and natural language processing capabilities.

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As a result, Grant Thornton’s professionals can run control design and assessment tasks in minutes, including processes that would have traditionally taken days or weeks. This means clients can enjoy operational insights more quickly and cost-effectively, which could add up to a new level of efficiency and a path toward transformative growth.

Rojhani stresses the importance Microsoft’s technology plays in the Grant Thornton CompliAI tool: “This endeavor with Microsoft underscores our dedication to harnessing the full potential of generative AI models to drive efficiency, accuracy and value for clients across a range of industries.”

Wes Luckock, a Risk Advisory senior manager at Grant Thornton, echoes this sentiment: “Grant Thornton CompliAIembodies the fusion of Grant Thornton’s industry-leading know-how and Microsoft’s technological advancement. With this tool, we’ll be able to provide our clients a dual advantage: They can improve their compliance and risk management processes, while also tapping into Microsoft’s extensive technology-enabled offerings.”

Grant Thornton CompliAIcaters to individual language preferences and boasts numerous capabilities within the compliance and risk management process, including:

Control gap assessment — improves the process of identifying risk and control gaps
Control rationalization — defines comprehensive controls that address any input risk
Narrative preparation — analyzes risk descriptions to provide in-depth control descriptions tailored to address risk
Control definition — generates more comprehensive, technically sound control definitions
Control enhancement for targeted attributes or risks — re-writes controls to be more technically sound and comprehensive
Test step preparation — generates step-by-step testing procedures
Identification of evidence — identifies evidence required for testing procedures
Walk-through preparation — generates risk- and control-specific walk-through questions to maximize understanding of risk environment

For more information on Grant Thornton’s compliance and risk management offerings, visit: www.grantthornton.com/services/advisory-services/risk-advisory.