Voice of the CEO: What to Learn From the Pulse Data

Internal audit is no exception. The IIA’s 2026 North American Pulse of Internal Audit survey found the percentage of internal audit functions that reported budget and staff cuts rose between 2024 and 2025, while those reporting budget increases fell.

When confronted with insights like these, the first instinct is often to worry. Understandably, practitioners may contemplate how limited resourcing and staffing might strain their own workload or job prospects. But what I find most interesting and deserving of our attention is what these insights reveal about internal audit’s path forward and the opportunities to demonstrate our value and secure our collective future.

Enhancing Strategic Alignment

Importantly, the Pulse data tells us that internal audit functions more closely aligned to organizational strategy are more likely to be well funded — in fact, funding sufficiency was 30% higher for functions that identified as being fully or almost fully aligned with organizational strategy.

Strategic alignment might sound vague or amorphous in concept, but in reality, it means being attuned to organizational priorities and long-term objectives. It also means establishing and executing a clear vision for how internal audit can strengthen organizationwide progress toward strategic objectives — through robust risk analysis, control environment assessment, and proactive recommendations for risk mitigation. A useful rule of thumb for enhancing strategic alignment, as outlined in The IIA’s Global Practice Guide: Developing an Internal Audit Strategy, is to aim for roughly 25% of internal audit findings to address governance, risk, and control elements that are directly related to the organization’s strategy.

To ensure we maintain our seat at the table, practitioners must continue to actively show the value of internal audit, highlighting the invaluable perspective our profession provides in enhancing organizational resilience — including by supporting financial stability, operational agility, reputation management, and more. Establishing consistent, transparent communication with executives, boards, and internal audit committees, as well as with other departments and stakeholders across the organization, is critical to developing a clear, comprehensive view of organizational strategy and direction.

Leaning into Our Strengths

The Pulse findings also underscore the importance of agility and adaptability as critical skills in an era of constrained resources. While strengthening strategic alignment and enhancing the perception of internal audit remain essential, these are longer-term efforts. In the near term, a clear priority for practitioners is to get creative with strategy and audit coverage to consistently deliver impact with limited resources.

Agility and creative problem-solving are core tenets of the internal audit profession, and they’ve never been more important. Remaining adaptable in the face of stretched resources looks different for every function — it may mean embracing technology and automation tools when appropriate, enhancing reliance on or coordination with other assurance teams, or adjusting scope to focus on core priorities. Above all, it requires practitioners to maintain an open and flexible mindset.

Looking ahead, our mandate is clear: to stay closely aligned to organizational strategy, engage openly with leadership and stakeholders, and remain adaptable in our ever-evolving scope of responsibility. Audit functions that prioritize strategic alignment and clearly demonstrate their value will be best positioned to help their organizations thrive in the face of shifting headwinds and ongoing disruption.