Intelligent Auditing in Practice: Designing, Testing and Embedding AI-Enabled Methods for High-Quality, Trusted Assurance

This PhD project pioneers next-generation audit methods that embed artificial intelligence and advanced analytics at the heart of the audit process, with the twin goals of raising audit quality and boosting efficiency. It explores applications such as AI-supported risk assessment, anomaly detection in massive datasets, and explainable AI techniques that enable auditors to understand, interrogate, and challenge model outputs instead of treating them as black boxes.​

Working closely with audit firms and professional bodies, the project will design and build proof-of-concept tools and methodologies that respond to real engagement needs and connect seamlessly to existing workflows, standards, and technologies. These prototypes will be tested in field experiments and pilots with engagement teams to examine how AI-enabled methods reshape audit evidence, documentation practices, and professional judgments in day-to-day audits.​

A second core strand investigates when and how AI-based methods actually take root in practice, focusing on skill requirements, training strategies, governance arrangements, and perceptions of legitimacy and reliability among auditors, regulators, and clients. By combining technical method development with practice-based collaboration, the project aims to deliver concrete tools and guidance that help the audit profession adopt AI in a responsible, explainable, and scalable way, strengthening both audit performance and trust in the assurance it provides.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Joost van Buuren

Duration: 5 years, depending on progress

Investment: Year 1 € 4,250, Years 2 & 3 € 9,750 per year, Years 4 & 5 and possible subsequent years € 3,500 per year. Fees are subject to change, no rights can be derived from this information, visit our website listed below for the latest fee information.

To apply:

This project is only available within our Self-Funded Part-Time PhD program. Application is only possible via our website https://www.nyenrode.nl/en/programs/p/phd-program-(part-time), which also provides further details around the application package, which includes:

• Application essay form (our fillable application essay form)
• Title
• Proposed research question
• Research background & rationale
• Methodology
• Suggested supervisors at Nyenrode
• Personal motivation
• Certified copy of your Master's degree or equivalent
• Copy of corresponding transcript/grade list(s) from your Masters or equivalent
• Curriculum vitae
• Reference letter(s)
• Photo

Contact:

For further information, please visit our website https://www.nyenrode.nl/en/programs/p/phd-program-(part-time) or contact Nyenrode’s PhD School at phd@nyenrode.nl