You’ve Got a Chatbot Friend in Me: Do Generative AI Chatbots Improve the Quality of Auditors’ Voice Decisions?

Well-calibrated auditor voice decisions are essential to audit quality, yet auditors are reluctant to speak up about audit issues that require follow-up. Remote work conditions exacerbate this effect. We examine whether new audit technologies can address this problem. We predict and find auditors are more likely to speak up about an audit issue when a generative AI chatbot is used, and this positive effect is larger for auditors working remotely versus in-person. To ensure use of the chatbot improves voice calibration, rather than simply increasing speaking up, we also examine voice decisions in a setting where an issue does not impact the audit and speaking up is not needed. Here, we find the presence of a generative AI chatbot significantly reduces auditors’ likelihood of speaking up. Overall, our study provides evidence that using generative AI chatbots can improve the quality of auditor voice decisions, enhancing audit effectiveness and efficiency.