TFS Gulf 
- Christina Ho didn’t just leave her job.
- She walked out of the U.S. audit watchdog system…and walked straight into the startup world, trying to rebuild audit from scratch using AI.
- Now she’s at Oath, a newly licensed U.S. audit firm.
- They have one Goal…Automate 80% of audit work by 2030, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Regulator who kept challenging the system
Christina Ho served as a board member at PCAOB (The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) from 2021 to January 2026.
As per The Wall Street Journal, throughout her tenure, she repeatedly pushed the profession to embrace technology faster.
In speeches and public discussions, she argued that audit remained overly reliant on manual processes despite advances in automation and AI.
She practically begged the US audit watchdog to do something about it.
Alas! Nothing happened.
So, she resigned from the PCAOB.
Instead of returning to a Big 4 firm or academia, she joined startup Oath, founded by Lucas Ward, Christopher Pesigan, and Christophe F.
Why Oath, and what is it building?
Oath is positioning itself as an independent verification platform for financial systems.
It has already received its CPA license.
Unlike traditional audit firms, Oath is building around continuous verification.
- Targets 80% audit automation by 2030
- Connects directly to a client’s data sources, such as accounting systems and document folders.
- Automatically extracts and reconciles financial data.
- Shifts audit from an annual process to a monthly, continuous verification
Founder and CEO Lucas Ward sums it up: “Modern financial systems are built by machines. So why are humans still auditing them?”
The firm will start with private companies before expanding to public markets.
Yes, VCs are lining up
Oath reportedly raised $6.6 million in seed funding in December 2025.
Series A could be on the horizon in 2027.
To comply with audit independence rules, the external funding will only go to the non-audit side of the business.
The CPAs will strictly own auditing operations.
Also read: Modus raises $85Mn…brings AI into mid-market Audit firms
And Oath isn’t alone
Over the last year, a wave of AI-native accounting and audit startups has emerged…backed by top VCs.
- Modus raised $85M for AI audit infrastructure.
- Basis raised $100M at a $1.15B valuation for AI accounting agents, already adopted by major US firms.
- Accrual launched with $75M, targeting preparation and review bottlenecks in large firms.
- Petual raised $20M to automate internal audit and SOX workflows.
- Audrey AI is building audit-focused AI tools out of Europe. Raised $1.8M pre-seed
Oh, the profession’s newest role
AI has given birth to several new roles:
- Forward Deployed Engineers
- AI Risk Specialist
- Prompt Architects, etc., etc., etc
Add one more to the list: Accounting Engineer…Accountants who bring in computer engineering expertise, or engineers who understand how financial systems work.
And Oath is hiring for this role!
The elephant in the room
Ward is clear about one thing….Audit will never be 100% automated.
The critical 20%…The final layer of professional judgment, accountability and signing the audit opinion remains a human responsibility.
But the remaining 80%? Data extraction, document review, population testing, risk identification, and report generation are increasingly becoming automation candidates.
And that’s where the profession faces a difficult reality.
Why? Much of this work has traditionally been performed by junior auditors during the first few years of their careers.
If 80% of the work gets automated…The industry’s talent model could fundamentally change!
The math is uncomfortable.
Also read: Ex-Big 4 Leaders, AI & Private Equity are going to disrupt Tax Advisory?
Why is this exploding in the U.S. but not India?
Because the economics are completely different.
Simple reality:
U.S.
- $50B+ audit market
- High audit fees
- Big tech budgets
- Public company dominance
- VC funding allowed
India
- Much smaller audit economics
- 96,000+ CA firms competing, most proprietors
- Top 10 firms dominate just 39% of listed audits
- External funding restrictions
One Top 20 mid-sized firm partner summed it up:
“Startups in India are building tools for Audit… but audit market size isn’t large enough yet for scale.”
But the reality is….Indian Audit firms are desperate to be AI-first!
Wrapping up…
If a former US audit regulator is betting on 80% automation of audit workflows….It is a signal that the structure of audit itself is being rethought.
And if you look at it…Audit is being rebuilt as software.
The real question now is simple: Who runs audit in the next decade…humans or machines?
