Ep 256: Soft Skills = Power Skills w/ Geoff Kovesdy & Jimena Escamilla

This week on The Audit Podcast, we’re joined by Geoff Kovesdy, who leads Digital Controls AI and Automation, and Jimena Escamilla, Senior Manager in Deloitte’s Advisory group. They share their favorite ChatGPT and Copilot prompts, talk about the one thing auditors should focus on right now, and discuss how audit teams can get AI and innovation wrong—and how to avoid those mistakes. The conversation also looks at leadership, with Geoff’s reminder that “soft skills equal power skills.” Geoff will also be speaking at the 2025 Audit Analytics & AI Conference on September 24–25. The event is virtual, and recordings will be available. His session will cover “GenAI: The Truth of the Matter and Impact on Risks and Controls.”   Be sure to connect with Geoff and Jimena on LinkedIn.   Also, be sure to follow us on our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.   Also be sure to sign up for The Audit Podcast newsletter and to check the full video interview on The Audit Podcast YouTube channel.   Timecodes:   3:18 – How to use AI chat bots 8:19 – The One Thing Auditors Should Do 10:25 – What Happens When Innovation Plans Go Wrong 15:16 – Innovation in internal audit 27:31 – Soft Skills equal Power Skills 31:27 - Accountability Meets Empathy 34:26 – How to Strengthen Your Empathy 37:00 - Final Thoughts   *   This podcast is brought to you by Greenskies Analytics, the services firm that helps auditors leap-frog up the analytics maturity model. Their approach for launching audit analytics programs with a series of proven quick-win analytics will guarantee the results worthy of the analytics hype.  Whether your audit team needs a data strategy, methodology, governance, literacy, or anything else related to audit and analytics, schedule time with Greenskies Analytics.