Latest / Chartered Accountants Global Update / Episode 6: AI Agents, Insider Trading, and the Fight Against Greenwashing

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Episode 6: AI Agents, Insider Trading, and the Fight Against Greenwashing · Chartered Accountants Global Update

• 0:01
  Antje: Hello, I'm Antje Dirks from Chartered Accountants Worldwide.
• 0:05
  Antje: This podcast has been researched and drafted with the support of AI.
• 0:09
  Antje: It's then reviewed, shaped, and signed off by our human editorial team.
• 0:14
  Antje: Even though we use AI to create this podcast, every story you hear is real.
• 0:20
  Antje: Every person we profile is a real person doing remarkable things.
• 0:25
  Antje: Every statistic is checked, every event is verified, every episode is approved by us, the human editors, who care deeply about this profession.
• 0:36
  Antje: Technology we use with purpose, oversight, and professional judgment exactly how it should be used.
• 0:44
  Antje: So, without further ado, I'm gonna hand you over to Olivia.
• 0:50
  Olivia: Thanks, Antje.
• 0:51
  Olivia: Welcome back to Chartered Accountants Global Update, the podcast that keeps you current on the stories shaping our profession worldwide.
• 0:59
  Olivia: This is season two, episode six.
• 1:02
  Olivia: Three stories today, and they all come back to the same question.
• 1:06
  Olivia: As the tools we use and the claims we're asked to verify get more complex, how does the profession stay ahead of the risk instead of chasing it?
• 1:15
  Olivia: We'll cover a global research study you can actually take part in, a sharp look at AI agents in audit, and an unexpected insider trading risk.
• 1:24
  Olivia: And why chartered accountants are becoming central to the fight against greenwashing.
• 1:28
  Olivia: Let's get into it.
• 1:30
  Olivia: First up, Chartered Accountants Worldwide, working with member institutes and the research firm Ipsos, has launched Wave 2 of its global study on AI and the future of the profession.
• 1:49
  Olivia: Wave 1 set the baseline.
• 1:51
  Olivia: This second wave goes further, looking at how attitudes are shifting on traditional AI, generative AI, and increasingly agentic AI.
• 2:01
  Olivia: The systems that don't just assist with a task, but carry it out on their own.
• 2:05
  Olivia: Here's why this matters beyond the data itself.
• 2:08
  Olivia: The study is designed to build a clear, evidence-based understanding of how these changes are influencing professional roles, skills, and expectations across markets, and that understanding shapes strategy and leadership decisions across the whole global profession.
• 2:23
  Olivia: In other words, this isn't research happening to the profession, it's research the profession gets to shape.
• 2:30
  Olivia: The survey takes about 15 minutes, responses are anonymized and aggregated, and it follows recognized research standards.
• 2:38
  Olivia: If you haven't completed it yet, it's a genuinely easy way to have your perspective counted, and we'll put the link in the show notes.
• 2:45
  Olivia: Next up, a story that connects two things you wouldn't normally put in the same sentence: audit automation and insider trading.
• 2:54
  Olivia: Richard Harrison at EY has been talking about how audit firms are deploying AI agents to handle more of the routine work, and the honest question underneath it is this how much can automation reliably own?
• 3:07
  Olivia: And where does professional judgment remain non-negotiable?
• 3:11
  Olivia: That's not a small question, because the more autonomy we hand to an agent, the more precisely we need to define where its authority ends.
• 3:19
  Olivia: In the same conversation, Poly Tsang raises a separate but related concern.
• 3:24
  Olivia: Prediction markets where people trade on the outcome of real-world events.
• 3:28
  Olivia: It sounds niche until you hear the example.
• 3:31
  Olivia: A Google employee reportedly generated over $1 million in gains trading on inside information through one of these platforms.
• 3:39
  Olivia: Existing insider trading frameworks were never built with prediction markets in mind, which means finance professionals working on anything market-sensitive could find themselves in genuinely murky territory without realizing it.
• 3:52
  Olivia: The thread connecting both stories is simple.
• 3:55
  Olivia: Technology is consistently outrunning the regulatory and ethical frameworks meant to contain it, and that puts more weight, not less, on professional judgment.
• 4:05
  Olivia: And that leads into our final story: greenwashing, and why chartered accountants are increasingly the ones called in to sort fact from spin.
• 4:14
  Olivia: Sustainability reporting has gone mainstream, boards and investors are paying close attention, and that attention has created an incentive to oversell.
• 4:23
  Olivia: We're talking about vague language like eco-friendly with nothing behind it, unsupported net zero pledges, and selective disclosure that highlights the good numbers while quietly leaving out the bad ones.
• 4:36
  Olivia: This is exactly the kind of problem chartered accountants are built for.
• 4:40
  Olivia: The same professional skepticism, evidence standards, and rigorous governance we apply to financial statements apply just as well to sustainability claims.
• 4:49
  Olivia: And the stakes are real.
• 4:51
  Olivia: Look at what happened to Volkswagen.
• 4:54
  Olivia: A 20% share price drop, and roughly 13 billion euros wiped off market value after an emissions scandal.
• 5:01
  Olivia: Regulators have noticed too.
• 5:03
  Olivia: In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority can now fine companies up to 10% of global turnover for misleading environmental claims.
• 5:11
  Olivia: And the Financial Conduct Authority's anti-greenwashing rule is already generating enforcement activity.
• 5:18
  Olivia: Chartered accountants who can verify claims against the underlying data, question vague terminology, and hold management commentary to the same standard as the financial statements are going to be indispensable here.
• 5:30
  Olivia: So that's three stories, one through line.
• 5:34
  Olivia: Whether it's shaping how AI research defines our future, drawing the line on what an audit agent should and shouldn't own, or holding sustainability claims to account, the profession's value keeps coming back to judgment, skepticism, and evidence.
• 5:48
  Olivia: That's it for this episode of Chartered Accountants Global Update.
• 5:52
  Olivia: Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time.