Learn AI Content Generation From an Auditor Who Actually Uses ChatGPT
- John C. Blackshire, Jr.
- Aug 21
- 9 min read
AI Content Generation for Finance and Audit Professionals — Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Presented by John C. Blackshire, Jr., Retired CPA
There is a major difference between teaching auditors what artificial intelligence might someday do and teaching them how AI is already being used in actual audit, compliance, governance, research, and professional-writing work.
Corporate Compliance Seminars' AI Content Generation for Finance and Audit Professionals on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 is built around that practical distinction.
The two-CPE webinar is presented by John C. Blackshire, Jr., Retired CPA and Co-Founder of Corporate Compliance Seminars, who has made extensive professional use of ChatGPT for audit and compliance analysis, CPE course development, research, writing, regulatory comparisons, and professional communications. CCS's course specifically addresses using tools such as ChatGPT to create risk assessments, audit plans, workpapers, compliance reports, policy reviews, and audit reports.
This Is About Actually Using AI, Not Talking About AI
Auditors have heard plenty about artificial intelligence.
AI will transform auditing.
AI will improve productivity.
AI will analyze data.
AI will change the profession.
Fine.
But an Internal Auditor sitting at a computer on Monday morning has a more practical question:
What can I actually do with ChatGPT today that will make my audit work better?
That is the focus of this program.
Blackshire has publicly described using ChatGPT professionally as a type of "second brain" for audit and compliance analysis—mapping requirements across PCAOB, AICPA, NAIC and OSFI frameworks, challenging audit conclusions, and translating regulatory requirements into usable audit checklists. He has also used it extensively for developing CPE materials and professional writing.
That practical experience matters.
The objective isn't to turn auditors into AI scientists.
It is to turn them into better AI users.
What Does “AI Content Generation” Mean for an Auditor?
Auditors generate an extraordinary amount of content.
Think about a typical engagement:
Risk Assessment
↓
Audit Objectives
↓
Audit Program
↓
Walkthrough Questions
↓
Control Documentation
↓
Testing Procedures
↓
Workpapers
↓
Findings
↓
Audit Report
↓
Executive Summary
↓
Audit Committee Presentation
Every one of those steps involves converting information into professional content.
The September 15 program examines how generative AI can assist with that work. CCS specifically identifies applications involving data analysis, workpapers, criteria review, policy and procedure review, fraud detection, specialized knowledge creation, risk assessments, audit plans, and compliance reports.
Start With the Risk Assessment
Suppose an Internal Auditor is assigned to audit Accounts Payable.
The traditional approach might begin with last year's audit program.
AI creates another possibility.
The auditor can provide appropriate background about the process and ask ChatGPT to help brainstorm:
What could go wrong?
Then refine the analysis:
Which risks could result in financial loss?
Which risks involve fraud?
Which risks involve regulatory compliance?
Which risks could arise from management override?
What controls would normally address each risk?
What evidence would demonstrate that those controls are operating?
Now AI is not performing the audit.
It is helping the auditor think through the audit universe faster.
The auditor remains responsible for deciding which risks actually apply.
Use ChatGPT to Challenge the Audit Plan
Once an audit plan has been developed, turn the process around.
Instead of asking ChatGPT to create the plan, ask it to criticize it.
or example:
“Act as an experienced Internal Audit Manager reviewing this audit program. Identify significant risks that the proposed procedures do not adequately address.”
Then:
“Which procedures appear redundant or do not clearly connect to an identified risk?”
Then:
“What evidence would you expect to see before accepting each proposed conclusion?”
This is where AI becomes more than a writing tool.
It becomes a challenge mechanism.
CCS's program specifically teaches auditors to create AI-generated risk assessments and audit plans and then integrate AI-generated content into established audit methodologies.
ChatGPT Can Help With Criteria Research
One of Blackshire's documented professional uses of ChatGPT has been comparing regulatory and audit requirements.
That can be particularly valuable when an auditor needs to understand multiple frameworks.
An assignment might involve:
COSO
IIA Global Internal Audit Standards
PCAOB Standards
NAIC Requirements
Organizational Policies
The auditor can use AI to help organize the criteria, identify overlapping requirements, and develop comparison matrices.
But this is where professional discipline matters.
AI-generated regulatory information must be verified against authoritative sources.
ChatGPT can dramatically accelerate research.
It does not eliminate the auditor's responsibility to verify the criteria.
Turn Source Documents Into Audit Questions
Another practical application involves document analysis.
Suppose the auditor receives:
A policy
A procedure manual
A process narrative
A prior audit report
A risk assessment
A control matrix
Rather than reading each document independently and beginning with a blank sheet of paper, the auditor can use an approved AI environment to help identify:
Key requirements
Potential inconsistencies
Missing controls
Areas requiring clarification
Potential interview questions
Then the auditor uses professional judgment to determine what deserves investigation.
This can dramatically accelerate audit planning.
AI Can Improve Walkthroughs
A walkthrough should not be a compliance interrogation.
Weak question:
“Do you follow the policy?”
Predictable answer:
“Yes.”
A better AI-assisted approach is to give ChatGPT the process description and ask it to generate open-ended questions.
For example:
“Walk me through what happens when a new vendor is established.”
“What happens when the normal approver is unavailable?”
“Describe the last time an invoice was rejected.”
“Who can override the normal approval process?”
“How would you know if someone changed vendor banking information?”
AI can help the auditor develop questions.
The auditor still needs the interviewing skills to recognize when an answer requires another question.
Workpapers Are a Natural AI Content-Generation Opportunity
Audit workpapers consume significant professional time.
The CCS course specifically includes AI-generated workpapers and improved audit documentation among its applications.
Consider the structure of a good workpaper:
Objective
↓
Risk
↓
Procedure
↓
Evidence
↓
Results
↓
Exceptions
↓
Conclusion
AI can help transform rough testing notes into a clearer narrative.
But there is a critical rule:
AI should improve the documentation of the audit work. It should never manufacture audit work that wasn't performed.
If the auditor did not obtain sufficient evidence, ChatGPT cannot fix that problem by writing a better paragraph.
Use AI to Review the Workpaper Too
One of the more powerful uses of ChatGPT comes after the workpaper has been drafted.
Ask AI to behave like the reviewer.
For example:
“Act as an experienced Audit Manager. Identify conclusions in this workpaper that do not appear adequately supported by the documented evidence.”
Then:
“Identify exceptions for which additional follow-up appears necessary.”
Then:
“Identify statements that appear to rely solely on management representation.”
Then:
“Does the documented procedure actually address the stated audit risk?”
That is an entirely different use of AI.
Instead of merely making the workpaper prettier, AI helps challenge its logic.
AI Can Help Develop Better Audit Findings
Internal Auditors frequently struggle with report writing because they wait until fieldwork is over to organize their thinking.
AI can help structure a finding around the classic elements:
Condition — What happened?
Criteria — What should have happened?
Cause — Why did the difference occur?
Consequence — What risk results?
Corrective Action — What needs to change?
The auditor can provide the validated evidence and ask ChatGPT to organize it into a first draft.
Then the auditor challenges that draft.
Is every factual statement supported?
Is the criteria authoritative?
Do we actually know the cause?
Are we overstating the consequence?
Is the recommendation addressing the root cause?
That iterative process can improve both efficiency and quality.
Use ChatGPT to Red-Team the Finding
This is one of the most valuable AI techniques auditors can learn.
After developing a finding, ask:
“Assume management completely disagrees with this finding. Develop the strongest reasonable argument against our conclusion.”
Now examine the response.
Did AI identify evidence you overlooked?
Did it expose an assumption?
Is the risk rating too aggressive?
Does the criteria really support the conclusion?
Do you need additional evidence?
That is a sophisticated use of generative AI because the auditor isn't asking the machine to confirm what the auditor already believes.
The auditor is using it to challenge professional judgment.
Blackshire has described using ChatGPT professionally to pressure-test audit conclusions by asking what an inspector might challenge.
From Finding to Executive-Level Audit Report
AI becomes particularly powerful when the auditor has strong evidence but weak communication.
The same finding may need to be communicated differently to:
Process Owner
CFO
Chief Audit Executive
Audit Committee
AI can help translate technical audit language into executive communication while preserving the underlying evidence.
For example:
“Rewrite this finding for an Audit Committee audience. Preserve the facts, risk rating and recommendation, but explain the governance significance in plain language.”
That can save considerable drafting time.
The auditor still approves every word.
ChatGPT Can Help Create Audit Committee Content
Audit Committees do not need a data dump.
They need insight.
AI can help turn detailed findings into:
Executive summaries
Risk dashboards
Issue rankings
Governance themes
Corrective-action summaries
Questions for management
Presentation outlines
This allows Internal Audit to move from merely reporting:
“Here are our findings.”
toward explaining:
“Here is what these findings collectively mean for the organization.”
That is higher-value auditing.
Blackshire Has Used ChatGPT for CPE Content Development
Another useful example comes directly from the instructor's own work.
Blackshire has written that ChatGPT became a first-draft engine for slide outlines, an editor for student notes, and a check on learning objectives and course flow. He reported that work that previously took weeks could sometimes be completed in days or hours, while emphasizing that he continued to rewrite and edit the results himself.
That experience illustrates the productivity proposition behind generative AI.
AI does not eliminate professional work.
It changes where the professional spends time.
Instead of spending an hour staring at a blank page, the auditor may spend that hour challenging, improving, verifying, and refining a first draft.
That is a much better use of expensive professional time.
The Blank Page Is Becoming Obsolete
Auditors spend enormous amounts of time creating first drafts.
First draft of the audit plan.
First draft of the risk assessment.
First draft of the workpaper.
First draft of the finding.
First draft of the executive summary.
First draft of the Audit Committee presentation.
Generative AI attacks that problem directly.
The new workflow becomes:
Professional Objective
↓
Effective Prompt
↓
AI First Draft
↓
Auditor Review
↓
Evidence Verification
↓
Professional Judgment
↓
Refinement
↓
Final Professional Product
That is fundamentally different from asking AI to “do the audit.”
Prompting Still Matters
Blackshire has also cautioned auditors that prompting is only the first stage of AI maturity.
In CCS's Auditor Sharing Group, he has described a progression in which auditors move beyond basic prompting toward more sophisticated ways of grounding AI in appropriate information sources.
But prompting remains fundamental.
A vague request produces a vague answer.
Compare:
“Write an audit finding.”
with:
“Using only the evidence below, draft a finding using Condition, Criteria, Cause, Consequence and Corrective Action. Clearly identify any element for which the evidence is insufficient. Do not invent missing facts.”
That is the difference between casual AI use and professional AI use.
AI Can Make a Bad Auditor More Efficient at Producing Bad Audits
There is an important warning in all of this.
AI increases productivity.
Productivity is not automatically quality.
An auditor who does not understand risk can rapidly generate a bad risk assessment.
An auditor who does not understand controls can rapidly generate a bad audit program.
An auditor who does not understand evidence can rapidly generate unsupported findings.
And an auditor who does not understand professional skepticism can accept an AI hallucination because it sounds authoritative.
AI amplifies the professional capabilities of the person using it—including weaknesses.
That is why AI training for auditors must be connected to audit methodology.
Human Oversight Is Non-Negotiable
CCS's September 15 program explicitly addresses ethical considerations, data privacy, bias, security, regulatory compliance, and human oversight.
That is essential.
The auditor remains responsible for:
Scope
Evidence
Professional skepticism
Confidentiality
Accuracy
Conclusions
Recommendations
Final reporting
ChatGPT does not sign the audit report.
The auditor does.
Learn From Someone Who Has Been Doing the Work
There is a practical advantage to learning AI from someone who has spent substantial time actually using it professionally.
Blackshire's documented uses have included audit and compliance analysis, regulatory comparisons, challenging conclusions, CPE development, emails, blogs, memos and proposals.
The September 15 course extends that experience directly into the audit workflow.
Participants will examine applications involving:
Risk Assessments
Audit Plans
Criteria Analysis
Workpapers
Compliance Reports
Policy Reviews
Fraud Detection
Audit Report Automation
Professional Documentation
Those applications are specifically identified in the CCS course materials.
Join John C. Blackshire, Jr. on September 15, 2026
AI Content Generation for Finance and Audit Professionals will be presented on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Central Time.
The program provides 2 NASBA-approved CPE credits in Auditing and is classified at the Basic-to-Intermediate level. CCS recommends its AI Prompting Essentials event as advance preparation and access to ChatGPT Plus for post-event exercises.
The question facing auditors in 2026 is rapidly changing.
It is no longer:
“Should I learn how to use ChatGPT?”
It is becoming:
“How much professional productivity am I giving up because I don't know how to use ChatGPT effectively?”
John C. Blackshire, Jr. has spent substantial time applying ChatGPT to the kinds of research, analysis, writing, training, and audit-related work professionals actually perform.
On September 15, the objective is to share that experience and help other auditors begin doing the same.
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