Making a smart career move
Published date | 29 June 2022 |
Publication title | Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland) |
"My role is to set the AI agenda for Mazars Ireland," Dossou explains. "It's a new field and we are setting up with new projects using new tools and a new team. I liaise with the Mazars Group internationally as they have been using AI for far longer. I also work with our innovation team in Paris."
Her role is both internal and external facing, she adds. An example of the internal aspect is support for the Mazars audit function. "We help the firm to deliver better quality and more effective audits by using technology. Auditing is very labour intensive. Most processes are technology-based these days and a lot of data is available. The traditional sample-based approach is fairly limited. You can get a lot more assurance using technology and there is less room for error."
The external side is more client-focused. One example is the work carried out for clients on Gender Pay Gap legislation compliance. "We have produced tools for clients that they can use to support compliance."
In other instances, Dossou says, the team's work extends into the data science realm. "We have developed an anomaly detection algorithm which one of our clients used to check their customers."
The aspect of her role Dossou enjoys most is its newness. "That's what I've most liked during my entire career. I've always enjoyed new things. I got into information security 25 years ago, when the internet was starting to expand. That's a really exciting area now."
She moved into the AI and data science side of things 10 years ago when she began her computer science PhD at TCD. "We have seen the maturation of the field since then," she notes. "Back then the technologies were so expensive that only banks or big corporations could utilise them. But cloud computing has democratised it and technologies are available from Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services on a pay-as-you-use basis. It's completely different to 10 years ago and keeps evolving very, very quickly."
And it has changed a lot in the three years since Dossou became director of AI. "The technology is more available to more people and there are many more use cases. It's fascinating. For example, I did a presentation on blockchain and cryptocurrencies a few years ago for the Institute of Internal Auditors. There weren't many use cases for them then, but it...
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