Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Scott Emett
Arizona State University
scottemett@asu.edu
Marc Eulerich
University of Duisburg-Essen
marc.eulerich@uni-due.de
Egemen Lipinski
Uniper SE
egemen.lipinski@uniper.energy
Nicolo Prien
Uniper SE
nicolo.prien@uniper.energy
David A. Wood
Brigham Young University
davidwood@byu.edu
Scott Emett, Arizona State University, W. P. Carey School of Business, W. P. Carey School of
Accountancy, Tempe, Arizona, USA; Marc Eulerich, University of Duisburg-Essen, Business
Administration, Duisburg, Germany; Egemen Lipinski, Uniper SE; Nicolo Prien, Uniper SE;
David A. Wood, Brigham Young University, Marriott School of Business, School of
Accountancy, Provo, Utah, USA
Abstract: We discuss how the internal audit function (IAF) of a large multinational energy
company, Uniper, is starting to use ChatGPT to improve automation of internal auditing. We
investigate the benefits and challenges of integrating ChatGPT into internal audit processes and
assess its impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the IAF. Uniper has implemented
ChatGPT into parts of audit preparation, fieldwork, and audit reporting. On their initial tests,
they estimate efficiency gains ranging from 50 to 80 percent for various processes. We report
key risks and challenges with using ChatGPT in internal auditing as well as the initial key
practices and rules for using ChatGPT. This study should help practitioners to learn how
ChatGPT can aid in auditing and help inform researchers about this fast, emerging technology.
I. INTRODUCTION
has sparked interest and extensive discourse since late 2022 (e.g., Gu et al. 2023; Wood et al.
2023). Large language models have distinguished themselves with their capacity to re-create
knowledge and carry out simple tasks, making them accessible to various user bases through
low-code interfaces (Radford et al. 2018a; Bommasani et al. 2021; OpenAI 2023). This paper
examines how the internal audit function (IAF) at Uniper, a multinational energy company,
adopted ChatGPT for internal audit tasks and how they plan to further use this technology in
the future. By harnessing ChatGPT, Uniper internal auditors have enhanced multiple phases
of the auditing process, ranging from risk-based audit planning and audit preparation, to
management, and governance functions (e.g, Prawitt et al. 2009; Carcello et al. 2020; Ege et
al. 2022). Yet, internal audit often struggles with budgeting and perception issues that hamper
its effectiveness (Anderson et al. 2012; Bartlett et al. 2016, 2017; Eulerich et al. 2021).
Technology holds promise to enhance internal audit effectiveness and efficiency on a limited
budget (Christ et al. 2021; Eulerich et al. 2023). Thus, studying if ChatGPT is able to serve as
a valuable tool for constructing audit steps, extracting insights, drafting working papers,
Schreyer et al. 2022; Cheng et al. 2023; Kok 2023; Wood et al. 2023).
This paper offers an in-depth exploration of how ChatGPT can enhance the internal
audit procedures of a large multinational company. The study aims to investigate the potential
benefits and challenges of integrating ChatGPT into internal audit processes and provide early
insight on its impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the function. We find that by
leveraging the capabilities of ChatGPT, internal auditors can enhance their ability to analyze
large amounts of textual data, automate routine tasks, and generate valuable insights for risk
assessment and mitigation. Additionally, ethical considerations, risks and potential limitations
associated with the use of ChatGPT in the IAF are discussed. The findings of this research
contribute to the growing body of research studying how technology can enhance auditing
practices and provide practical insights for organizations seeking to optimize their internal
audit processes (Cooper et al. 2019, 2022; Pickard et al. 2020; Eulerich et al. 2022).
II. MOTIVATION
Language models, such as ChatGPT, are noted for their ability to generate coherent
and contextually appropriate text responses, making them potentially useful to auditors. Gu et
al. (2023) propose that auditors can use language models as copilots on the audit. Copiloting
involves the collaborative interaction between humans and AI systems to complete tasks. The
collaboration is a continuous and iterative dialogue, allowing the auditor to control the
direction of the audit and its procedures, while relying on the foundation model to function as
informed decision-making. Copiloted auditing offers significant theoretical potential, but has
heretofore not been tested in practice. To this end, we examine how a multinational company
III. METHODOLOGY
applications of ChatGPT in the audit procedures for a multinational company. While case
studies have relatively low external validity, they provide in-depth details on important topics.
Considering the recent introduction of ChatGPT and the fast-moving changes businesses are
making in response, a case study helps researchers understand how practice is developing and
and energy sales. Established in 2016 as a spin-off from E.ON, it operates globally with a
strong presence in Europe, and other strategic markets. Uniper reported annual revenues of
approximately $287 billion in 2022. Uniper actively engages in energy trading, managing
risks, and maximizing asset value. They also offer energy-related services such as consulting,
The Uniper IAF has 26 internal auditors. The IAF focuses on regulatory compliance,
identification of potential risks, and enhancing operational efficiency. The CAE oversees all
audit activities, reporting to the CEO, communicating directly with the audit and risk
committee, and coordinating with management, which follows the recommendations of the
IIA (IIA, 2023). Audit managers report to the CAE and are responsible for the planning and
execution of individual audit engagements. Their role involves supervising audit teams and
ensuring that audits are completed within the designated timeframe, budget, and quality.
procedures, identifying potential areas of risk, adequate mitigation measures and, drafting the
audit reports. Finally, the Audit Quality team assists the CAE in effectively managing the
entire function by employing key performance indicators. They ensure adherence to the
of management and the supervisory board. The Audit Quality team is also responsible for
performing the yearly audit planning The IAF completes around 50 internal audits per year,
normally with 2 auditors in a team. All audits at Uniper include at least some level of data
analytics or technology.
The internal audit process at Uniper follows the IIA standards, including stages of
preparation, fieldwork, audit reporting, and monitoring. Uniper designed its internal audit
process to be risk-based, iterative, and ongoing, with the goal of continuous improvement. If
the internal auditors learn of a new risk, the annual audit plan can be adapted to immediately
respond to any changes, including technological innovations. The IAF has authority to
determine how they will conduct testing, including any technologies they will adopt to
In January 2023, the CAE and one of the audit managers decided to experiment with
ChatGPT to see how it could be used in the audit process. The audit manager and his team
began exploring ChatGPT by identifying potential use cases and evaluating potential risks of
the technology.
The initial choice of internal audit test cases was driven by curiosity, a desire to
explore the capabilities of AI, and desire to apply these technologies to the entire internal
audit process. During early testing of ChatGPT, the internal auditors sought out supportive
colleagues within the IT function and worked with a colleague in the CIO office and IT
strategy. The team self-taught using internet resources on prompt engineering and learned
primarily by experimentation.
The team primarily interacted with ChatGPT through a browser interface, which had
been approved by Uniper’s Information Security department. However, this approval was
conditional, hinging on strict adherence to sufficient risk mitigation practices to ensure secure
providers in the consulting process like the Workers Council, Compliance and Data
Protection. With this support, the IAF addressed potential information security, compliance or
The integration of ChatGPT into daily operations was initially met with positivity
from the team. The overarching sentiment was one of enthusiasm about incorporating this
novel AI tool into the workflow. However, there were instances of resistance or skepticism, a
common occurrence when introducing new technology into established processes (e.g.,
Salijeni et al. 2021). As ChatGPT proved useful over time, a considerable shift in attitudes
was observed. An increasing number of team members began embracing the AI tool,
Based on these efforts, the IAF identified the following initial use cases for ChatGPT
in internal auditing:
• Q&A: ChatGPT can help internal auditors to answer specific questions from various
domains, e.g., laws and regulations, accounting, IT, tax or specific technologies.
• Research: ChatGPT can help the internal auditors to create a list of ideas or
recommendations or a list of relevant topics for an audit engagement.
• Text Analysis: ChatGPT can help internal auditors with different text analysis tasks,
especially to summarize (long) text fragments, find unfavorable clauses and terms,
screen different types of textual information, interpret materials in other languages,
determine the impact of new laws and regulations, or find critical terms in a text.
• Content Creation: ChatGPT can help internal auditors to write, correct, create, or
explain program code, create meeting minutes from bullet points, create individual
emails for different business situations, or create draft audit reports.
It is important to note that during the testing of ChatGPT, no company IP address was
used and no personal or company data was utilized to maintain confidentiality. Additionally,
the auditors were extremely conscious of not providing complete and meaningful texts, opting
instead to use fragments and manually piece together the responses. They took additional
measures by altering data or changing the meaning of statements in certain instances to ensure
retrospectively by collecting and piecing together the text fragments that were entered into
the auditors diligently adhered to the "four-eyes" principle when crafting the prompts for
ChatGPT.1 Based on these categories of potential applications, the team tested the integration
of ChatGPT in a real internal audit engagement. The auditors chose to use ChatGPT in
The audit sought to confirm that an adequate Security Management System existed,
including the protection of people (Uniper personnel, contractors, and visitors), sites (power
plants, offices, energy storages), property (equipment, pipelines, infrastructure etc.), and
environment to limit the impact that may result from physical security threats.
The IAF used ChatGPT in various aspects of the audit, as depicted in Figure 1.2 The
figure shows that the IAF attempted to use ChatGPT in three of the four stages of the audit,
not attempting to use it in the monitoring stage in initial testing. We provide detailed
discussion of how ChatGPT was used in each stage and how well it performed.
Brainstorming Risks
The IAF started with using ChatGPT to identify potential physical security risks.
Auditors, assisted by ChatGPT, brainstormed various risks relevant to this audit (see Figure
2). The auditors estimate that approximately 80 percent of the total risks identified were
generated by ChatGPT. It should also be mentioned that the risks were accurately described
and this task was completed only in a few seconds by ChatGPT. For validation, the auditors
shared the risk descriptions with the audit client, who found them reasonable with only minor
modifications.
1
This principle is that two people (each with two eyes) are watching what is happening at all times.
2
The figures come from PowerPoint slides prepared by Uniper internal auditors. The slides were prepared to
share the work of the IAF to internal and external stakeholders.
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After this initial review of the quality of risks generated, the internal audit team used
ChatGPT to help define the scope of the audit. The internal auditors specifically prompted
ChatGPT to create a scoping document with seven different audit-relevant areas for the
engagement and three sub-items per area (see Figure 3). The internal audit team double-
checked the results with the audit client and followed the suggested scope with only minor
changes. Afterwards, the internal auditors used ChatGPT to define risk areas for the audit
work program.
In sum, in the audit preparation phase, ChatGPT offered valuable insights and
generated preliminary ideas. It assisted auditors in pinpointing potential risks, defining the
audit scope, and proposing relevant audit procedures. Furthermore, it generated customized
audit steps based on specific objectives, refined interview questions, and helped refine audit
Audit Fieldwork
During the audit fieldwork stage, the IAF used ChatGPT to define potential interview
questions for the internal auditor and the initial interviews with the audit client. The internal
auditor prepared a very specified prompt to get the best results out of the model. In this
prompt the auditor defined which role ChatGPT should take (“Internal auditor of an energy
company that operate various power plants in Germany and abroad”), which specific task
should be fulfilled (“What are some key questions to ask the Corporate Head of Physical
Security about minimum security standards for fencing, video surveillance and key lock
systems, implementation processes and the benefits of ISO 270001?”), and which specific
standards be defined and monitored to improve the physical security in the company’s power
plant?). Based on the concrete specification of the “role” of ChatGPT, the concrete “task” to
used for the actual interview. Figure 4 provides an example of what was entered into ChatGPT
Internal auditors conducted the interview of company personnel and recorded their
meetings as they normally do. Most of the interviews were conducted in German. For testing
purposes, the unstructured meeting minutes of one particular interview were summarized,
structured and translated into English by ChatGPT. It should be noted though, that the
auditors camouflaged the meeting minutes before entering them into ChatGPT. (see Figure 5).
Based on the original interviews and summarization, the internal auditors wanted to
conduct additional follow-up interviews with the audit clients. Based on the previous
interviews, the internal auditors used ChatGPT to develop additional follow-up questions. The
internal auditors input the information from their testing and asked ChatGPT to generate
additional questions based on the information provided. In every instance, the auditors
consistently and transparently informed their interviewees that they were using ChatGPT as
their source of information. The reactions they received in return ranged from astonishment to
positive recognition.In fact, for some of the interview partners, this experience served as their
Researching Topics
Uniper’s IAF also used ChatGPT to research relevant regulatory guidance and
geopolitical events that were taking place concurrently with the audit. For example, the team
used ChatGPT to better understand how information security standards (ISO 27001) applied
to the specific audit being conducted by the team (Figure 6), allowing them to test adherence
to those standards. Although ChatGPT is not trained on all current information, users can use
ChatGPT to process and understand current events. For instance, Uniper’s IAF team copied
Audit Reporting
Once all audit activities were finished, the IAF used ChatGPT to improve the
readability of the audit report. The auditors entered short parts of their findings into ChatGPT
while observing strict confidentiality and then asked ChatGPT to produce several alternative
formulations of the findings. The auditors selected which response best represented the
findings in a professional, neutral manner. The internal auditors then drafted the final report.
Identified Benefits
While the IAF applied ChatGPT in various stages of the internal audit process, the
level of improvement varied across different audit tasks. The IAF observed the most
promising results in tasks that involved preparation of audit scope, risk descriptions, interview
preparation, translation and structuring of meeting minutes, research, and report writing. The
highest positive impact the company observed in report writing. ChatGPT was particularly
effective in this aspect of the internal audit process, which is usually very time consuming,
resulting in more accurate, concise, and well-structured reports. Considering that the audit
reports are also intended for the board of management, it is vital to prioritize their readability.
This is where ChatGPT unfolded its highest value for the auditors.
provide solid and measurable evidence regarding time reduction or cost savings based on the
initial tests (Eulerich et al. 2023). Instead, the IAF evaluated the increase in productivity by
3
We note that ChatGPT now has the ability to search online materials, which would make copying and pasting
articles unnecessary.
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results, the IAF estimated improvements in time efficiency ranging from 50 to 80 percent for
specific process steps. The IAF strongly believes that ChatGPT has not only improved the
time efficiency but also contributed to more accurate outputs through its text analysis and
generation capabilities. As a result, the overall quality of the audit tasks has been significantly
improved.
Future Plans
Uniper’s internal audit function has charted a comprehensive plan to leverage the
significant advancements made with ChatGPT. The first step in this plan is to finalize the
crucial in driving AI initiatives and enhancing workflow automation within the IAF. ChatGPT,
in particular, is expected to automate certain tasks, thereby enhancing efficiency and enabling
auditors to dedicate their attention to other valuable activities, such as engaging with audit
clients and conducting fieldwork.The company also plans to develop AI guidelines and
implement AI training programs. These initiatives aim for responsible AI usage and a process
for employees to certify before using AI. Concurrently, Uniper will maintain a focus on
identifying new AI use cases, especially those involving data analysis and video generating
platforms. The goal is to expand the application of ChatGPT into areas where it can excel in
analyzing large volumes of data, thereby driving further value for the organization.
functions within the company to implement AI solutions company-wide. The company also
plans to share its AI experiences with peer companies and at conferences, facilitating mutual
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the company is applying ChatGPT to the operational manual for a Uniper power plant. This
will allow for employees to quickly search for answers to questions using plain language
querying. It will also allow for summarizing results to make it easier to train others. Second,
they are considering a project to apply ChatGPT to improve Uniper’s governance framework
Overall, the continued use of ChatGPT and specific plans for additional use suggest
that it is valuable for internal audit, even if the benefits are hard to quantify, which is similar
to other technologies in internal auditing (Eulerich et al. 2023). As stated by an internal audit
manager, “Overall, we see significant potential for generative AI- / ChatGPT- supported
projects across all Uniper functions. Once we manage to streamline the many individual
efforts that are already emerging, we will be able to utilize more impactful use cases.”
Finally, in the course of implementing ChatGPT, Uniper noted various risks and
challenges (see Table 1). They also identified key practices and rules to help mitigate these
risks and challenges (see Table 2). By moving into a dedicated, secured and Uniper only
Azure environment, some of the risks, such as data protection, could already be effectively
mitigated during the implementation phase. Uniper mandates the exclusive usage of this
dedicated environment. These risks, challenges, key practices, and rules should help
practitioners that are implementing ChatGPT while also serving as ideas for future research.
V. CONCLUSION
Uniper is utilizing ChatGPT to perform tasks within all parts of the internal audit
process. The initial tests by the IAF show that ChatGPT is helpful in all aspects of the audit
process and can result in significant efficiency gains. The company plans to continue
Although initial tests have proven successful, auditors need to carefully evaluate the
risks and opportunities associated with using ChatGPT. While ChatGPT presents exciting
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benefits in alignment with their intended applications. Evaluating the potential risks involves
considering factors such as the accuracy and reliability of the model, potential legal and
ethical implications, data privacy and security concerns, and the potential impact of biased or
evaluation of risks and opportunities, companies can make informed decisions about
incorporating ChatGPT into their operations, ensuring that the benefits outweigh the potential
drawbacks and aligning with their business goals. We encourage future research that helps to
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2. Bias in responses: AI models like ChatGPT can inadvertently reflect biases present in the
training data, leading to biased or unfair responses. This can perpetuate stereotypes,
discrimination, or misinformation. It’s important to monitor and address potential bias in
AI-generated content.
4. Privacy and security concerns: Sharing personal or sensitive information with ChatGPT
or any AI model can pose privacy and security risks. AI platforms should be treated as
public spaces, and users should avoid sharing confidential information such as
passwords, financial details, or personal identification numbers.
6. User manipulation and malicious use: AI models can be exploited for malicious purposes,
including generating deceptive or manipulative content. This can be particularly
concerning in the context of misinformation, social engineering, or phishing attempts.
Users should be cautious and vigilant while interacting with AI-generated content.
7. Legal and ethical considerations: Deploying AI systems like ChatGPT may raise legal
and ethical concerns, including intellectual property rights, copyright infringement, data
protection, and compliance with regulations. Organizations should ensure they have the
necessary legal and ethical frameworks in place to address these considerations.
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3. Be cautious with personal and corporate information: Avoid sharing sensitive personal
and/or corporate information with ChatGPT or any AI model that could be harmful. Treat
AI platforms as public spaces and be mindful of privacy.
4. Set boundaries and be cautious with sensitive topics: Avoid discussing highly sensitive,
personal, or emotionally charged topics. ChatGPT is a machine learning model and may
not provide appropriate or empathetic responses in such cases.
5. Stay updated on security measures: Request approval from Corporate IT Security before
engaging with any new AI application. Stay informed about the security measures
implemented by the platform provider. Ensure that the platform encrypts data
transmission and follows best practices to protect user privacy.
6. Understand the limitations: Recognize that AI models have limitations and can
sometimes provide inaccurate or biased information. Use AI tools as aids, but always rely
on human judgment and expertise when making important decisions.
7. Stay informed about AI developments: Keep up with the latest advancements and
research in the field of AI to stay aware of potential risks and understand best practices
for using AI responsibly, for example Microsoft`s „Responsible AI Framework“.
8. Develop and implement a ChatGPT drivers license for users (in progress, working group
of Uniper together with Microsoft established): Implement a system where users need to
pass a verification process or complete an educational module on responsible AI usage
before gaining access to ChatGPT. This can help ensure that users are aware of the risks
and guidelines associated with the platform.
9. Learn from shared experience of implemented use cases by running a "road show" for
other colleagues: Organize internal knowledge-sharing sessions or "road shows" where
colleagues who have implemented ChatGPT or similar AI systems can share their
experiences, best practices, and lessons learned. This can help disseminate knowledge
and promote responsible usage within the organization. As of today, we deployed our
Internal Audit ChatGPT road show to approx. 360 Uniper colleagues and the count
continuous to increase.
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