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When Block Inc. announced a strategic decision to cut 40% of its headcount, the market did not react with caution; it responded with overwhelming enthusiasm, driving the company's share price up by 28% on the exact same day. The driving force behind this dramatic restructure was articulated clearly by the company's CFO, Amrita Ahuja: "We see an opportunity to move faster with smaller, highly talented teams using AI to automate more work."

When considering this, there is an uncomfortable but necessary truth to confront: your board read that announcement, too.

Whether we like it or not, expectations are undergoing a rapid and irreversible transformation. We are no longer dealing with theoretical future scenarios populated by "AI doomers" predicting the end of software stocks and "AI optimists" promising unchecked utopia. We are dealing with practical, immediate changes to the way governance work is executed. It is time to look closely at the data regarding how artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of work — and exactly why the internal audit and risk profession must care.

The "Double Disruption": Tasks, Not Jobs

To accurately predict the trajectory of our profession, we must first dispel a common misconception. Right now, AI is automating tasks, not entire jobs. This is the essence of the "Double Disruption." While routine, administrative, and technical tasks are rapidly being absorbed by technology, highly cognitive, interpersonal, and strategic tasks are the elevated domain of humans.

With this in mind, we can map our daily workflows and assign tasks into one of five distinct states:

1. Stays with you — AI cannot do this yet; the task remains entirely human-led.
2. You lead, AI assists — You remain firmly in charge of the objective, but AI helps accelerate the process and gather inputs.
3. AI leads, you guide — AI does the heavy lifting, generating the initial work, while you review, refine, and approve the output.
4. Fully automated — AI handles the process end-to-end without requiring human intervention.
5. Gone (No longer needed) — The task simply disappears from the workflow entirely, rendered obsolete by new operational models.

Understanding these five states is critical because they form the blueprint for how we must reimagine and reshape our teams to succeed in this new future of work.

The Data Reality: A 3-Year Horizon

To move from theory to reality, we must examine the hard data. Consider the standard job description of an Internal Audit Manager. When we break down this role into its 17 core tasks and project forward on a three-year horizon, the results are startling.

Even in a highly conservative scenario — assuming no radical technological leaps, but simply the steady integration of the AI tools that are already available today — 76% of an Internal Audit Manager's tasks will be fundamentally AI-impacted within three years.

This is not an isolated or exaggerated example. GoFIGR analysed 111 roles and 2,000 distinct tasks across audit, risk, compliance, and legal functions to determine the three-year impact of AI. The data paints a remarkably consistent picture across the entire GRC landscape: AI will take over the execution, but humans will absolutely keep the judgement. Administrative duties, routine compliance execution, and technical reporting are disappearing into automated or AI-led workflows. Meanwhile, interpersonal relationship building, strategic leadership, and complex professional judgement remain fiercely human.

Validating the Shift: Industry Perspectives

Across multiple sessions at SOPAC 2026, this data-driven reality perfectly aligns with the strategic direction that some boards and many leaders in the profession are already charting. For example, since 2022 graduate intakes across the Big Four have decreased by approximately 45%. While there are multiple drivers, AI efficiency is key.

But if AI is accelerating our agility and automating our routine work, does it mean job cuts and a lack of partially trained talent coming through the pipeline? This was part of an in-depth conversation at the IIA Australia CAE Leaders Network held on 4 March 2026.

The 30-odd CAEs and CRO professionals in attendance took an optimistic view of what this 'task-based' role realignment means for their organisations, essentially seeing the newly freed human capital as the equivalent of a budget boost — to be directed towards improved capability to use AI in audits and reviews, as well as to provide assurance around the organisation's use of AI.

However, there was recognition of — and concern that — the pipeline of trained, talented young people that used to come via the service firms' graduate programs can no longer be relied upon. The traditional pathway — where people learned the non-AI-capable skills through undertaking the tasks that AI does better than humans — is broken.

While it is new for this profession, other professions — like mechanical engineering and nursing — have successfully transitioned from apprenticeship on-the-job training to technical skills taught via education, with aspects like professional judgement taught through a combination of theory and in-placement practice. This is a great opportunity for the profession to define how it will upskill next generations for the exciting future of work across the GRC profession.

The Skills Shift: Navigating the New Paradigm

What does this mean for our profession? To remain relevant and thrive in this new era, we must approach our skillset through three distinct lenses:

Double Down (Stays Human): We must heavily invest in the areas where humans continually outperform machines. This includes honing Human Judgement (complex risk assessment and professional judgement), Stakeholder Influence (executive communication and stakeholder management), Team Leadership (mentoring and strategic planning), and deep Domain Expertise (regulatory knowledge and governance).

Let AI Handle It (Automate): We must willingly relinquish the tasks that machines can execute faster and more accurately. This means stepping back from manual Data Analysis (including pattern recognition), Heavy Documentation and Reporting (such as routine regulatory reporting), and Standard Compliance Execution (basic control testing and compliance review).

Develop New (The Future): We must rapidly develop new competencies that bridge human oversight with machine capability. This includes AI Output Evaluation, Prompt Engineering, and AI-Assisted Decision-making. Crucially, it involves mastering AI Governance, AI Agent Orchestration, and Ethical Oversight.

The Three Lines

As part of this professional shift, it's vital to understand a core element regarding our future: "AI Governance" and "AI Agent Orchestration" are not simply incremental upskills. They will reshape controls, risk management, and assurance across the Three Lines. Today, AI sits squarely across all Three Lines.

The double disruption of artificial intelligence is not in the distance; it is a present-day reality. The organisations and professionals that thrive will be those that embrace AI to handle routine execution, intentionally freeing human capability to focus on strategic advisory, cultural influence, and complex governance.

The question is no longer whether AI will change your job, but how quickly we will adapt to lead that change.

"The worst thing we can do is consider it done and dusted. When we forget, we lose the lessons."