Audit & Beyond: An imperative for navigating the risks of 2025 and beyond

Once upon a time, C-suite leaders could confidently delegate their pressing business issues to different parts of the business (e.g., “infosec can handle that”). That model no longer works. Today’s risks are deeply interconnected, creating far-reaching ripple effects that are increasingly difficult to predict. At the same time, AI is fundamentally changing how work gets done. Improving our organizations’ chances of navigating and withstanding risk-induced disruption demands unified, aligned collaboration across the business.

Today’s problems are everyone’s problems. That means internal audit, risk, and compliance teams need to step up, improving how they share insights and work together.

This begs the question: What are specific ways we can begin coming together?

My most recent book, Connected Risk: Conquering the Perilous Risk Exposure Gap, offers strategies teams can use inside their organizations. But our efforts shouldn’t stop there. We should also look beyond, understanding how teams in other organizations are integrating AI and responding to today’s interwoven risks. Events like AuditBoard’s Audit & Beyond conference are an ideal way we can come together and share insights across organizations.

Over my five decades in the profession, it will surprise no one to hear I’ve participated in my fair share of conferences. That’s why I say confidently that Audit & Beyond offers tremendous value to those who are fortunate enough to attend. A key reason why is right in the title, “Audit & Beyond.” The conference is among the few that bring together professionals from internal audit, risk, and compliance. Instead of emphasizing one profession and its key challenges, it illuminates opportunities across the entire connected risk spectrum.

Further, at Audit & Beyond, you’re not just there to listen. You’re there to contribute your expertise in fellowship with professionals across service lines. The three-day event’s 40+ sessions include keynotes from noted experts, targeted roundtables and panels, and breakout sessions focused on innovating new solutions to critical business problems.

During my 2025 keynote, for example, a special guest and I will lead a discussion focused on navigating the risks that global supply chain disruptions present — a topic that exemplifies how seemingly disparate risks align and converge to create new risks. Tariffs, geopolitical conflicts, macroeconomic volatility, escalating cyberattacks, and uncontrolled AI use/deployment are coming together to exacerbate organizations’ supply chain risks. What impacts are organizations seeing, and how are forward-thinking business leaders responding?

Other 2025 keynotes will focus on unpacking a range of interwoven risks and challenges. For example, former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly will explore AI’s transformative potential alongside the hidden vulnerabilities that could leave organizations dangerously exposed. AI Product Executive and expert Dr. John Maeda and AuditBoard CTO Happy Wang will examine how teams building AI-based products and services are deploying new models to better manage AI risk. Governance, risk, and compliance leaders from several leading brands will detail how they’re using technology to drive cross-functional collaboration and increase impact. Finally, four-time Olympian and 12-time US national champion high jumper Chaunté Lowe will share her story of resilience in the face of unexpected challenges.

This will be my fifth Audit & Beyond conference since joining forces with AuditBoard in 2021. Every year, I leave the event equipped with new connections, fresh perspectives, and more fully formed ideas about how I can use my platform to drive positive change. That’s why I’m taking the time now to encourage all audit, risk, and compliance practitioners to consider attending.

AuditBoard’s 2024 Audit & Beyond conference enjoyed record-breaking attendance, with more than 11,000 practitioners attending either in person or virtually. The 2025 conference, taking place from October 21–23 at San Diego’s Gaylord Pacific Resort, places a special focus on exploring how audit, risk, and compliance teams can help their organizations redefine risk in the era of AI.

Indeed, AI implementation is a critical opportunity for 2025 and beyond. Making the most of its potential requires a strategic approach balancing innovation and governance. Accordingly, many of the conference’s keynotes, breakout sessions, and training sessions will dig into how AI can be used to transform continuous monitoring, analytics, audit planning, controls testing, and management, and other areas.

AI is also a key force behind the imperative for reimagining risk management through improved cross-functional collaboration. Every organization must be concerned not only with navigating the current uncertainty but with achieving and sustaining resilience to withstand the uncertainty to come. Because AI introduces complex, fast-changing risks that are deeply interconnected with other key enterprise risks, resilience requires a better understanding of how AI is transforming both our organizations and our roles within them.

In a recent Audit Beacon blog, I focused on how internal auditors can stay relevant and provide value in the age of AI. I wrote, “As history teaches us, winning a race isn’t always about raw speed. It’s also about navigating obstacles, interpreting the road ahead, and knowing when to pivot. That’s where the human internal auditor still holds firm ground.” This advice applies equally for risk management, audit, compliance, and even infosec professionals, and we’ll have a better chance of doing all of the above if we work together.

Again, today’s problems are everyone’s problems. Nobody can solve them on their own. The new risk management reality requires us to come together in order to evolve, positioning ourselves and our organizations for ongoing relevance and resilience in the age of AI. Don’t miss this vital opportunity to do just that. Register using this link and receive a complimentary signed copy of Connected Risk.

Need help convincing your organization of the business value of attending Audit & Beyond? AuditBoard put together a customizable letter to share with your manager.

About the authors

Richard Chambers, CIA, CRMA, CFE, CGAP, is the CEO of Richard F. Chambers & Associates, a global advisory firm for internal audit professionals, and also serves as Senior Advisor, Risk and Audit at AuditBoard. Previously, he served for over a decade as the president and CEO of The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). Connect with Richard on LinkedIn.