Audit Smarter: Cognitive Skills, Bias & AI in Professional Judgment

Overview

Toby Groves, founder of Cognificent Learning, explores how cognitive psychology shapes judgment and decision-making in auditing and other high-stakes professions. Drawing on his background as a CPA and psychologist, he explains how stress, bias, situational awareness, and overreliance on technology’including AI’affect audit quality and ethical outcomes. Groves emphasizes operational definitions, metacognition, and deeper engagement with information to strengthen professional judgment under pressure.

Highlights

Prerequisites

Work experience in auditing, or an introductory course in auditing.

Objectives

• Identify key cognitive processes'such as metacognition, reactivity, and situational awareness'that influence audit judgment and decision-making under pressure.
• Recognize how stress, time constraints, and information overload impair judgment quality and increase the risk of errors and ethical missteps.
• Distinguish between human cognition and AI capabilities to evaluate appropriate reliance on technology in audit judgment and decision-making.
• Recall practical strategies for improving situational awareness and critical thinking, including perspective-taking and engagement with underlying source data.

Preparation

None.