KPMG and Forbes Insights recently compiled a survey of 151 respondents who are audit committee chairs and members, CEOs, CFOs, other C-level executives and controllers, directors of financial reporting, investors, audit associates, accounting students, and audit professors. Some key conclusions of the survey respondents include:

• 93% believe that the audit profession needs to evolve, yet the direction of the evolution remains uncertain. A third believe that auditors should go beyond certifying numbers. In contrast, the majority believe that the auditors’ role should remain unchanged—only the way they perform the audit should evolve.
• The majority agree that a trio of skills are essential for future auditors: experience in the client’s industry, investigative financial skills, and critical thinking.
•  The majority consider culture and the regulatory environment as the biggest challenges to enhancing the role of the audit. The intertwining of these two factors leads to a highly structured, process-oriented working environment, which can create resistance to change.
•  The majority agree that increasing the profession’s status is the most important way for audits to evolve in the future. Audit should be perceived as a profession, not a job, and career tracks should be more rewarding.
•  The consensus is that technology is likely to have the biggest impact on the audit profession, especially for young auditors who benefit from technology because it provides tools for more sophisticated analysis.

In the US, and in most countries, public companies are required to have their financial statements audited by an independent public accountant. The Supreme Court, in United States v. Arthur Young (1984) describes the audit as a “public watchdog” function that “demands that the accountant maintain total independence from the client at all times and requires complete fidelity to the public trust.”

http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/kpmg_audit/index.html

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