CAQ Releases Results of Fall 2023 Audit Partner Pulse Survey

The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) has released the results of its fall 2023 audit partner pulse survey, a biannual survey that asks audit partners at leading public-company accounting firms to share their perspectives on the current state of the U.S. business environment. The following are a few highlights of the survey:

• Pessimism in the U.S. economy has significantly decreased over the past year, with 27 percent of audit partners expressing pessimism compared with 57 percent in the fall of 2022.
• Inflation continues to be a major concern despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to alleviate it with interest rate increases.
• A sizable majority of the audit partners surveyed (74 percent) believe that the current U.S. standard-setting and regulatory environment has had a negative effect on businesses.
• The number of companies that believe cybersecurity to be a major economic risk jumped by 20 percent over the past year.
• Climate-related rulemaking topped the list of regulatory topics to which companies are paying the closest attention, with 65 percent reporting that it was a significant area of focus.
• Companies are continuing to devote resources to addressing the talent shortage in the accounting profession through such actions as upskilling and increasing compensation and workplace flexibility.
• Interest in AI continues to increase, but companies are encountering various challenges with deploying it (e.g., data quality, data security risks, difficulties with implementation and management).