Audit intricacy, access to talent make splitting audit-non-audit biz tough

Experts say audit no longer simplistic, involves analytics, AI, automation, forensics and tax expertise; Greater audit quality needs variety of skills found in multidisciplinary structure

The cancellation of EY’s Project Everest, designed to split its audit and consulting business, has brought into open the debate around such restructuring and the difficulties surrounding it, with most firms asserting that they do not see any merit in doing so. The global heads of two of the big four firms, PwC and Deloitte, have asserted that they would not go for a split and stick to a multidisciplinary strategy.

Deloitte Global CEO Joe Ucozoglu recently said in a video message, “Our multidisciplinary model is allowing us to deliver incredible impact across so many different stakeholders…We have unanimous alignment