By Becker Semela:
A proudly South African innovation is targeting corruption, financial mismanagement, and audit failures with the launch of a new real-time Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform called Audrey. Developed locally and led by a team of homegrown experts, Audrey monitors transactions and data continuously, flagging potential irregularities and compliance breaches within minutes.
The Imagination Advisory and Technology Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Audrey, Claude Chetty, said this smart technology is being hailed as a “game-changer” for governance and financial oversight, especially in a country struggling with public sector accountability. He said the governance frameworks have evolved in complexity, but the audit tools have lagged behind. Audrey brings much-needed intelligence into that space, making sure that red flags are picked up quickly.
“Unlike traditional audits, which often identify issues months or even years after they occur, Audrey detects suspicious patterns before damage is done. She detects patterns in real time before money disappears, before tenders go wrong and before institutions are compromised,” Chetty said.
Regarding a homegrown solution to a national problem, Chetty said the need for this kind of technology couldn’t be more urgent as the country continues to battle the effects of large-scale financial mismanagement. “The Zondo Commission revealed that over R57 billion was lost to state capture and related corruption. In her 2022/2023 local government report, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke warned that just 13% of municipalities received clean audits. Had real-time auditing technology existed during the early stages of state capture, much of the damage could have been prevented. In most cases of irregularities, red flags are present but are undetected until it is too late,” said Chetty.
Explaining what makes Audrey different is that it is the world’s first complete AI platform built specifically for audit assurance and governance. Designed entirely by South Africans, the platform uses machine learning and predictive analytics to:
- Monitor full data sets and track transactions in real time.
- Flag unusual vendor or staff activity.
- Send instant alerts to compliance teams and auditors.
- Provide decision-makers with live data-driven insights.
“Audrey’s AI engine can process and learn from more than 1,500 pages every 12 hours, offering levels of speed and precision that traditional audits simply can’t match. During its pilot testing, organisations reported a 40% reduction in audit cycle times and better early detection of fraud, conflicts of interest and financial leakage,” he said.
Chetty emphasised that Audrey is not replacing people but empowering them. “With AI advancing rapidly, concerns about job losses are widespread, but Audrey is built to support professionals, not replace them. This is not about removing auditors; it is about removing the blind spots. Audrey takes over the repetitive scanning and frees people to focus on the issues that require ethical judgment, interrogation, and human insight. This marks a necessary shift in how institutions think about governance. We must shift from retrospective auditing to proactive prevention. Corruption is getting smarter, and so must our tools,” Chetty said.
He added that as South Africa continues its fight for clean governance, Audrey stands as a proudly local innovation with global potential, but one that could help restore public trust and financial integrity, one flagged anomaly at a time.
About Audrey
IN A NUTSHELL, Audrey is an AI-powered assurance platform developed by Imagination Advisory and Technology. Designed to detect operational and financial risks in real time, Audrey supports both private and public institutions with intelligent, always-on audit assurance. Core features include predictive risk analysis, full population testing and natural language-driven insights. To learn more about Audrey, log on to www.auditaudrey.com. -@NewsSA_Online
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