Audit candidates tout AI, portals and milestone workflows to keep CalPERS audits on time

During the interview session, committee members pressed candidates on how they would ensure the timely completion of audit work and how firms plan to apply new technology, including artificial intelligence and data analytics, to the CalPERS engagement.

KPMG described its KPMG Clara platform and an “audit life cycle” that sets hard milestones (for example, aiming for key areas to be substantially complete by June 30) and a client dashboard that gives management real‑time visibility into the engagement. KPMG partners said Clara embeds automation and AI‑enabled routines to scale population testing and to reduce manual sampling.

Crowe highlighted its Exchange client portal and a centralized alternative‑investments center that runs analytics on whole populations of holdings and helps route employer census submissions into secure subsites. Crowe said the portal preserves prior‑year documents for year‑to‑year continuity, assigns requests to employer contacts and supports threaded, auditable communication about requests and responses.

BDO emphasized an executive‑sponsor model and a client‑relationship team that pairs with the engagement team; the firm described proprietary pricing and confirmation tools and an investment in AI strategy to bring targeted analytics and anomaly detection to the audit. BDO’s Kirsty Tiernan described her role as “AI strategist” on the engagement team and said the firm is investing in network‑level AI tools for audits.

Plante Moran stressed a people‑first approach and said it brings embedded specialists — actuaries, valuation experts, cybersecurity and insurance specialists — to avoid “black‑box” escalation to a distant national office. The firm outlined experience managing large transitions and a SharePoint‑style document portal with deadlines and upload tracking.

Why it matters: CalPERS’ audit involves multiple divisions, large investment populations and contributor employers. Firm representatives said early, continuous work, population‑level analytics and client portals lower the risk of late‑stage surprises and, in some cases, shorten the close cycle.

Limits and governance: Firms said AI and automation would be applied with human oversight; KPMG and BDO noted third‑party endorsements and internal validation for parts of their platforms. Several firms said they would escalate significant timeline risks promptly to CalPERS management and to the committee as needed.