CAQ Releases Fall 2025 Audit Partner Pulse Survey

December 8, 2025

The CAQ has released its audit partner pulse survey for the fall of 2025. The survey is conducted biannually to solicit the views of audit partners at “leading public company audit firms” regarding the current business climate. Key findings of the fall 2025 survey include:

Compared with the spring 2025 survey, there was a decline in pessimism and increase in optimism and neutrality regarding the state of the U.S. economy; however, the results also revealed that “the profession has not yet returned to the confidence levels seen in late 2024.”
The top risks identified were “regulatory uncertainty and trade tensions,” whereas “recession” was cited as the greatest concern in the spring survey.
Investments in artificial intelligence (AI) continue to increase despite the cost cuts that companies are making in other areas of their businesses; in general, AI investments are being “viewed less as discretionary spending and more as essential to long-term efficiency and resilience.”