The auditors of 2035 do not exist yet. Are you building them now?

Here is a question that should keep every Chief Audit Executive up at night: Where will you find the auditor of 2035?

Not the auditor you are hiring today. The auditor you will need in ten years — the one who can interrogate an AI model's decision logic, build a predictive risk dashboard, advise the board on the risk implications of a quantum computing deployment, and still write a clear, persuasive finding that drives action. That person. Where are they?

The honest answer is that, in most cases, they do not exist yet. Not in line with the profile that will be required by the profession.

Internal audit has consistently drawn talent from traditional sources: accounting graduates, finance professionals, former external auditors, and IT specialists with compliance expertise. This pipeline produced professionals well-suited to a landscape dominated by periodic audits, manual testing, and compliance. However, as technology and business needs evolve, the traditional talent pipeline is no longer sufficient—internal audit must look beyond these conventional pools to find talent equipped for a rapidly changing world.

The IIA's Vision 2035 research identified human capital as one of the most urgent transformation challenges facing the profession. The future audit function will need people who blend deep technical fluency — data science, machine learning, advanced analytics — with the judgment, communication skills, and professional skepticism that have always defined great auditors. That combination is rare. Building it takes time that most functions have not started spending.

The talent crisis is compounding from two directions simultaneously. On the one hand, AI and automation are absorbing entry-level work that once served as the training ground for new auditors. On the other side, the skills required at the advanced end of the profession are multiplying faster than traditional audit training programs can accommodate.

This is not a problem that can be solved by a single hiring cycle or a weekend workshop on data analytics. It requires a deliberate, strategic approach to talent — one that reimagines how auditors are recruited, developed, upskilled, and retained in a profession that is changing faster than its own educational infrastructure.

Robinson De Jesús addresses the human capital dimension directly in his thought leadership presentation "The Audit Function of 2035", as one of ten critical capability areas every audit function must assess and develop. The roadmap he presents offers a structured way to think about where your talent strategy stands today — and what it will take to build the team the future demands.

The auditors of 2035 do not exist yet. Building them starts now.