From Digitization to Artificial Intelligence in External Public Audit

Abstract

Digitization is one of the main concerns in contemporary society, this phenomenon being accentuated with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced everyone to use technology under the conditions imposed by the new reality based on social distancing. The paper aims to analyze the use of digitization at the level of supreme audit institutions, the transition to artificial intelligence, as well as its impact on performance management, both in terms of performance at the level of these institutions and in terms of the public sector, in its whole. At the same time, the paper aims to pinpoint a series of tools based on artificial intelligence that could be used in the external public audit and, in particular, with regard to the audit of public procurement, given the importance of the funds allocated to the area of public procurement.