Is the "audit police" era finally coming to an end?

There is a phrase that has haunted internal audit departments for decades — one that audit leaders whisper about in conference hallways and cringe when they hear from C-suite executives: "the audit police." It is a label that reduces a complex, mission-critical function to a stereotype. It implies investigators who arrive uninvited, demand documentation, and disappear, leaving behind a report that lands on a shared drive and is promptly ignored.

For too long, that caricature has had more than a little truth to it.

But things are changing quickly. In July 2024, the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) released its Vision 2035 report. This was the result of thorough global research with audit leaders, executives, board members, and other stakeholders. The message was clear: internal audit is not just evolving—it is undergoing a major transformation.

More than 50% of internal auditors who participated in that research expect their role to be substantially different by 2035. Not slightly updated. Not retooled. Substantially different.

So what does that mean in practice? It means the profession is moving from a posture of looking backward — auditing what happened last quarter — to a posture of looking forward, providing strategic foresight on risks that have not yet materialized. It means moving from compliance-checking to decision-enabling. It means trading the PDF report nobody reads for dynamic, real-time dashboards that stakeholders actually use.

The good news is that this shift is not wishful thinking. There is a clear path forward — one built on specific, measurable capabilities that any audit function can begin developing right now, regardless of size, sector, or geography.

The uncomfortable question, of course, is whether your function is ready to take that first step.

In his upcoming thought-leadership presentation titled The Audit Function of 2035: Implementing Vision 2035, Robinson De Jesús maps out exactly what that path looks like — complete with a diagnostic framework and a practical roadmap that begins, not in 2035, but on today.

The "audit police" era is not over yet. But for those willing to act, the clock has started ticking.