AI Regulation Tracker / Global standard-setter, binding Code revisions
IESBA Adds Technology and AI to the Global Accountant Ethics Code
The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants rewrote its Code of Ethics so that technology, including artificial intelligence, is an explicit source of ethical risk that accountants have to manage. The revisions strengthen the rules on professional competence and due care, confidentiality, and dealing with complexity, and they tighten when a firm may provide a technology-related service to an audit client. Approved in 2023 and effective December 15, 2024.
The accounting profession runs on one shared rulebook for ethics. IESBA writes it, and almost every national body and audit regulator in the world builds its own code on top of it. So when IESBA changes the Code, the change eventually reaches the desk of nearly every professional accountant, whether they ever read the pronouncement or not. The Technology-related Revisions are one of those changes. They took a Code that mostly predated widespread AI and automated tools and made technology a named ethical-risk activity in its own right.
IESBA describes the point of the revisions plainly. They are meant to "Strengthen the Code in guiding the mindset and behavior of professional accountants when they use technology." That framing matters. This is not a bolt-on chapter about software. It reaches into the fundamental principles every accountant already has to follow and asks how each one holds up when the work is being done with or by a machine.
Technology as an ethical-risk source, not a neutral tool
The IESBA Chair, Gabriela Figueiredo Dias, put the reasoning behind the revisions in terms of risk rather than convenience: "It is crucial and in the public interest that we provide strong, clear and principles-based standards to equip professional accountants around the world in navigating the ethical risks and challenges brought on by technology." That is the shift. The Code no longer treats a spreadsheet, an analytics platform, and an AI model as background infrastructure. It treats the decision to use them, and the decision to rely on what they produce, as an ethical judgment with its own duties attached.
What the revisions actually touch
The enhanced guidance is fit, in IESBA's words, for the digital age, and it lands on the fundamental principles accountants already know. IESBA identifies the guidance as relating to "the fundamental principles of confidentiality, and professional competence and due care, as well as in dealing with circumstances of complexity." In practice that means a few concrete things.
- Professional competence and due care. An accountant who uses an AI or automated tool has to understand it well enough to use it appropriately and to evaluate whether its output is fit for the purpose. You cannot outsource professional judgment to a model and call it competence.
- Confidentiality. Feeding client data into technology tools, including third-party and cloud systems, is squarely inside the confidentiality duty. The revisions push accountants to think about where data goes and who can reach it.
- Complexity. The Code adds guidance for dealing with the complex, opaque circumstances that technology creates, where the path from input to output is hard to see and easy to over-trust.
- Objectivity and reliance. The Code's requirement of objectivity still governs when an accountant relies on the output of a tool. Automated confidence is not a substitute for independent professional judgment.
The independence piece has teeth for audit firms
The revisions also change the International Independence Standards, and this is the part with the sharpest operational edge. They address, in IESBA's words, "the circumstances in which firms and network firms may or may not provide a technology-related non-assurance service to an audit or assurance client." Selling an audit client a data-analytics build, an AI system, or a technology service can create a self-review or advocacy threat to independence. The revised standards draw clearer lines on what is and is not allowed. For firms that both audit and sell technology services, that is a real constraint on the engagement roster, not a talking point.
When it binds, and the honest recency point
Two effective dates apply. IESBA states that "The revisions to the IIS will be effective for audits and reviews of financial statements for periods beginning on or after December 15, 2024," and that "The other revisions to the ethics provisions of the Code will be effective as of December 15, 2024." Early adoption was permitted. So this is not breaking news. It is settled, in-force standard-setting that many professionals have not yet worked into their own habits, which is exactly why it is worth reading now rather than the week it was approved.
Why this binds US practice too
A US accountant might assume a global board in another jurisdiction does not reach them. It does, through convergence. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and the state boards operate against the IESBA Code as the international baseline, and US firms with cross-border or multinational engagements deal with the IESBA Code directly through their networks and their non-US clients. If you audit or advise an entity with international operations, or you sit inside a global network firm, the IESBA technology and independence revisions are already part of the standard you are measured against. The practical move is to treat AI and automated-tool use as a competence-and-independence question on every engagement, document how you evaluated the tool and its output, and check any technology service sold to an audit client against the revised independence rules before it is booked.
Questions professionals are asking
Is the IESBA Code the same as the ICAEW or AICPA code?
No. IESBA is the independent global board that writes the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. Member bodies such as the ICAEW and national regulators such as the state boards under the AICPA framework adopt or adapt the IESBA Code for their own members. IESBA sets the baseline standard; the national bodies apply it. That is why an IESBA change eventually reaches accountants who never deal with IESBA directly.
Are the technology revisions binding or just guidance?
They are binding revisions to the Code of Ethics as adopted, not a consultation, discussion paper, or staff opinion. IESBA approved them in 2023 and set them effective December 15, 2024. Once a member body or regulator adopts the revised Code, the technology provisions carry the same force as the rest of the Code for the accountants it covers.
What do the revisions require when I use AI in accounting work?
They fold AI and automated tools into the fundamental principles. You need enough understanding of a tool to use it appropriately and to judge whether its output is fit for purpose, which is professional competence and due care. You have to protect client data you put into the tool, which is confidentiality. And you keep your objectivity and professional judgment rather than deferring to the machine. The Code also adds guidance for the complexity these tools create.
How do the revisions affect audit firms selling technology services?
The revised International Independence Standards address when a firm or network firm may or may not provide a technology-related non-assurance service to an audit or assurance client. Building or selling an AI system, analytics tool, or technology service to an audit client can create self-review or advocacy threats to independence. Firms need to test any such service against the revised rules before taking it on.
Does this apply to US accountants?
Effectively, yes, through convergence and networks. The AICPA Code and the state boards use the IESBA Code as the international baseline, and US firms with cross-border engagements or global network membership work to the IESBA Code directly. If you audit or advise entities with international operations, the technology and independence revisions are part of the standard you are held to.
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Informational analysis for working professionals, not accounting or legal advice. Confirm how the IESBA technology-related revisions and your national code apply to your engagements with your firm's ethics and independence function.