Fieldguide & Grant Thornton expand AI risk partnership

Fieldguide has formed a strategic partnership with Grant Thornton Advisors focused on risk and controls work across Grant Thornton Advisors' US advisory practice.

Under the arrangement, Fieldguide's platform will serve as the technology foundation for CompliAI, Grant Thornton Advisors' artificial intelligence-enabled controls and risk assessment tool. The system will be used in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, fraud risk and other risk advisory engagements.

The partnership expands an existing multi-year relationship, extending Fieldguide's role across Grant Thornton Advisors' SOX compliance and broader risk offerings.

Grant Thornton Advisors provides tax and advisory services in the US. San Francisco-based Fieldguide develops software for audit, advisory and assurance work in regulated sectors.

Risk focus

The deal reflects the growing use of artificial intelligence in professional services, particularly in work involving large volumes of repeatable tasks and detailed documentation. Risk and compliance teams are under pressure to respond more quickly to changing regulation while maintaining oversight and audit trails.

CompliAI is designed to embed AI agents into engagement execution while keeping human supervision and professional judgment in place. The tool is intended to automate repeatable work within controls testing and risk assessment processes.

That approach is becoming more common among accounting and advisory firms seeking to reduce manual effort without removing qualified staff from key decisions. In regulated work such as SOX compliance and fraud risk assessment, firms still need clear records of how conclusions were reached.

Tony Buffomante, national managing partner of cyber and risk services at Grant Thornton Advisors, outlined the firm's view of the partnership.

"Grant Thornton Advisors has a long history of investing ahead of the curve to better serve our clients," Buffomante said. "Our work with Fieldguide builds on that foundation. By embedding AI into our risk and controls work, we can drive greater consistency and transparency while freeing our teams to focus on higher-value judgment and insights. The result is more efficient, high-quality outcomes, and stronger trust in the process."

Wider adoption

For Fieldguide, the agreement adds another large professional services user to its customer base. A growing number of firms are using its software to reshape how engagements are delivered in audit and advisory work.

The company positions its platform around collaboration between professionals and AI agents rather than full automation. In practice, that means software handles parts of planning, testing, documentation and workflow management while staff retain responsibility for review and final judgment.

Jin Chang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fieldguide, said the Grant Thornton Advisors arrangement showed how AI was moving into core operational work rather than remaining limited to pilots.

"Grant Thornton Advisors is demonstrating what it means to lead in the next AI-driven era of the profession," Chang said. "They're not experimenting with AI at the edges; they're embedding the technology into the core of how work gets done. Together, we're offering a solution where human judgment and AI agents collaborate to deliver higher-quality outcomes, greater capacity, and a more sustainable future for advisory services."

Market shift

The partnership comes as accounting, audit and advisory firms reassess their operating models in response to generative AI and related software tools. Much of the sector's early focus was on productivity gains in administrative tasks, but firms are now applying the technology to more specialised workflows in controls, compliance and risk analysis.

That shift also reflects competitive pressure. Clients increasingly want faster reporting, clearer visibility into risk issues and more consistent delivery across engagements, while firms must manage staffing constraints and rising regulatory expectations.

For Grant Thornton Advisors, the use of CompliAI across its US advisory practice suggests the firm sees AI-assisted delivery as part of mainstream client service rather than a standalone experiment. The collaboration could also be extended into other service lines and geographies over time.

Fieldguide is backed by investors including Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Bessemer Venture Partners, 8VC and Thomson Reuters.