The 6th Annual Internal Audit Forum: Toward Proactive Internal Audit in the Age of AI and Digital Risk

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) is a joint initiative of five private sector organizations dedicated to providing thought leadership through the development of frameworks and guidance on enterprise risk management, internal control, and fraud deterrence.

Internal audit is being asked to see further, respond faster and speak with greater authority.

Assurance remains fundamental. But in a banking environment increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, digital dependencies, sophisticated fraud, cyber risk, regulatory expectations and external volatility, assurance alone is no longer enough. Boards and senior management increasingly need internal audit to identify where vulnerabilities are developing, assess whether resilience is real or assumed, and provide an independent perspective on risks whose speed and complexity are challenging traditional approaches to oversight.

This places the Chief Audit Executive at the centre of a significant shift. The question is no longer simply whether internal audit is fulfilling its mandate. It is whether that mandate, its capabilities and its relationship with the boardroom are keeping pace with the environment in which financial institutions now operate.

Against this backdrop, The Internal Audit Forum 2026, held under the theme “Beyond Assurance: The Next Audit Agenda for AI, Digital Risk, Resilience and the Future of the CAE,” will bring together senior leaders and professionals from internal audit, risk, governance, technology and regulatory functions to examine the priorities that are reshaping the audit agenda across banks and financial institutions.

Over two days, the Forum will address some of the most consequential questions facing the profession. What should boards expect from their CAEs today? Is internal audit providing sufficient foresight? How should audit approach AI when it is simultaneously transforming the bank and the audit function itself? Where does operational resilience become most vulnerable across cyber, cloud and third-party ecosystems? How should institutions respond to deepfakes, digital fraud, insider threats and AI-enabled attacks? And as digital identity and eKYC continue to reshape banking, how must assurance evolve with them?

The agenda extends beyond technology. It will examine governance and ethics, remuneration risk, financial resilience in volatile conditions, environmental and social risk within the credit lifecycle, external dependencies beyond traditional outsourcing, and the impact of wider risk developments on the audit universe. It will also look ahead to the decisions CAEs must make as they prepare their 2027 audit plans and build the teams, skills and judgement that the audit function of 2030 will demand.

The Forum is designed not merely to examine individual risks, but to connect them. AI, cyber risk, governance, resilience, third parties, regulation and talent increasingly intersect, requiring audit leaders to look beyond traditional boundaries and assess the institution as a whole.

For CAEs and the professionals working alongside them, the strategic challenge is clear: to preserve the independence and rigour that define internal audit while ensuring that the function remains relevant to the risks, technologies and decisions shaping the future of banking.

The Internal Audit Forum 2026 provides the senior-level platform for that conversation.

Topics of Discussion:

1. The CAE in the Boardroom