“Auditing is defined as the on-site verification activity, such as inspection or examination, of a process or quality system, to ensure compliance to requirements.” Elon Musk has just changed the Auditing Game!
Most readers are aware that Elon Musk is leading a small task force of developers to assess the processes and spend of various federal government agencies, i.e., USAID. This pundit has been of the belief that this group is using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address this, as he did when assessing the proposed budget in December 2024.
Observers were astonished with the speed and accuracy of this AI driven assessment. Gone are the days of thousands of pages of unreadable bills where congressional leaders demand instantaneous passage in the ‘wee hours’ of night. No more, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
Too Big to Fail, No More!
The long-standing mantra for major, critical sectors such as Money Center Banks is that they are too big and too important to be allowed to fail. By this logic, US federal government agencies are at the top of that very short list.
Assuming the following post on 𝕏 is factual, Musk and company have the developed the basis of a new company. One that will restructure the way auditing is conducted for large complex organizations.
The EKO article is a quick and compelling read, and we will not repost here. Key take aways, this pundit took include that crawling through decades of data:
- Three subsystems were mapped quickly as were payment flows across agencies. Patterns were revealed that even career individuals did not know existed
- $17 billion in redundant programs were detected and are growing
- “The beautiful thing about payment systems,” noted a transition official watching their screens, “is that they don’t lie. You can spin policy all day long, but money leaves a trail.”
- “That trail led to staggering discoveries. Programs marked as independent revealed coordinated funding streams. Grants labeled as humanitarian aid showed curious detours through complex networks. Black budgets once shrouded in secrecy began to unravel under algorithmic scrutiny.”
- “By 6 AM, Treasury’s career officials began arriving for work. They found systems they thought impenetrable already mapped. Networks they believed hidden already exposed. Power structures built over decades revealed in hours.”
- “Their traditional defenses—slow-walking decisions, leaking damaging stories, stonewalling requests—proved useless against an opponent moving faster than their systems could react. By the time they drafted their first memo objecting to this breach, three more systems had already been mapped.”
The list goes on, but readers get the point and can do their own detailed review. Also, one expects that much more will be made public in the near future.
— EKO (@EkoLovesYou) February 6, 2025
Graphic is taken from the linked 𝕏 article.
Value Proposition to ‘We the People’
Bureaucrats are hired hands. The citizens of the United States of America are the client. Some argue that government is different than a profit or non-profit organization. But is it? Isn’t government responsible for delivering goods and services in accordance with its customers wishes? If not, what is the role of Washington, DC and every state capital?
This pundit has focused on Operational Excellence (OE). We have developed economic models that document (with support) measurable as well as soft value that can be attained and sustained from OE initiatives. We believe this approach is applicable to governmental agencies as well.
Nature of Auditing
According to the American Society for Quality (ASQ), Auditing has three components:
- Process Audit–Verification that processes are working within established limits
- Product Audit–Assess whether or not products and services conform to accepted standards and requirements
- System Audit–Assessment of management systems, i.e., Operations Management Systems (OMS)
The principal objective of the systems analysis phase is the specification of what the system needs to do to meet the requirements of end users. Isn’t what Musk has done the holistic integration of data acquisition and initial assessment of the three components of an Audit?
There are no longer three components (four if one included financial reporting) but ONE. Not just Game Changing but the Creative Destruction of the esteemed auditing profession.
Future Role of Professional Services
This writer’s career spans the gulf of large software development teams to the configuration using tools by as few as one individual. This is a pattern many processes deal with, for example fast food, discrete manufacturing, energy exploration, medical and others.
Jobs are retooled and affected individuals find careers elsewhere and by the way, you’re never too old. Millions of individuals in the private sector have met this challenge and some more than once.
Apparently, Musk only had four (4) IT types working on this DOGE project. Certainly, others had to assess his findings and make decision, but the data acquisition was inexpensive and fast.
This suggests massive and wrenching changes to the professional services status quo. Smaller, focused with fewer billable hours compensated teams. The upside, this may lead to a Value Pricing Model.
Musk Auditing LLC?
Has Elon launched another company with the high visibility first customer? This pundit thinks so. And what a demo!
“The US Auditing Services Market size is estimated at USD 51.88 billion in 2025, and is expected to reach USD 60.94 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 3.27% during the forecast period (2025-2030).” I rest my case. Then there is the Rest of the World!
One lesson for all of us; any profession can be instantly made irrelevant with emerging technologies and the will power of new entrants. At all costs, stay ahead of the curve.
How will your organization deal with this game changer?
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The author’s credentials in this field are available on his LinkedIn page. Moreover, Dr. Shemwell is the coauthor of the 2023 book, “Smart Manufacturing: Integrating Transformational Technologies for Competitiveness and Sustainability.” His focus is on Operational Technologies.
We are also pleased to announce our forthcoming book to be released by CRC Press in April 2025, Navigating the Data Minefields: Management’s Guide to Better Decision-Making. This is a book for the non-IT executive who is faced with making major technology decisions as firms acquire advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” (Martin Luther King speech at Cornell College, 1962). For more information on Cross Cultural Engagement, check out our Cross-Cultural Serious Game. You can contact this author as well.
For more details regarding climate change models, check out Bjorn Lomborg and his book, False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.
Regarding the economics of Climate Change, check out our blog, Crippling Green.
For those start-up firms addressing energy (including renewables) challenges, the author can put you in touch with Global Energy Mentors which provide no-cost mentoring services from energy experts. If interested, check it out and give me a shout.
