Futurist Keynote Speaker: Posts, Slides, Videos -
Law Firms, Accountancy, Professional Services
There are very few global consulting and accounting firms, and this is already causing big problems for regulators, unhappy when the same companies audit the same accounts for years. We should be worried when auditors are from the same organisation as consultants, when huge companies find members of their teams on both sides of complex deals. It is hardly surprising that so many audits of multinationals have turned out to be so misleading to investors.
Arthur Andersen disappeared almost overnight as a result of the Enron scandal, and it will only take one more such event to create a crisis, because only three global firms would remain. Expect further regulations about companies needing to change their auditors every few years, and more restrictions on conflicts of interest.
As I predicted, Auditors are becoming more strictly audited themselves regarding their own performance. Auditors will increasingly be held legally responsible when banks or insurers or other types of company fail spectacularly, soon after a clean audit. It is outrageous that global auditors have been able to walk away without penalty, from large companies that collapse, only days or weeks after being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to vet them for accounting irregularities and risks.
* "How AI Will Change your life - A Futurist's Guide to a Super-Smart World" - Patrick Dixon's latest book on AI is published in September 2024 by Profile Books. It contains 38 chapters on the impact of AI across different industries, government and our wider world, including future impact of AI on professional service firms including Law Firms and Accounting.
Read more: Future of Law Firms, Accountancy, Auditing and Global Consulting Companies, Professional Service Firms. Future of government regulation on professional services. Why compliance is dead except to keep people out of prison. Focus on Ethics - Keynote speaker