AI Enablement and Process Automation | Cherry Hill Advisory

AI Enablement and Process Automation

Forward Deployed Engineers for Internal Audit, Risk, and Finance

We embed engineers inside your function to build the automation, not just recommend it. The engineers are internal auditors from our own team, trained on AI process automation, and a former Chief Audit Executive or controller reviews every build.

The Gap

Assessment Tells You What Is Broken. It Does Not Fix It.

Internal audit, risk, and finance functions are all carrying more scope against flat headcount. The assessment lands, the roadmap gets approved, and then nothing moves, because nobody on the team has the engineering capacity to build what the report asked for. The finding and the fix require different skills, and most organizations only buy the first one.

Most advisory firms stop at the recommendation. We build it.

What happens without build capacity

Control recommendations that stay open across two audit cycles
Manual testing and manual reconciliation that consume the calendar and crowd out judgment work
Process documentation that decays the month after it is written
Automation pilots that never reach production
Tooling that was purchased and never configured to the environment
A close, a control, or a report that depends on one undocumented spreadsheet

Capabilities

What We Build

Four capabilities. They apply the same way across audit, risk, and finance. Most engagements combine two or three.

01

Process Restructuring and Optimization

Map the current state, quantify the handoffs and rework, redesign the flow, then implement it. Value stream mapping, process flowcharts, and automation discovery run through Keystone, our internal controls program builder.

02

Control Automation

Convert manual detective controls into automated preventive and detective controls. Fewer key controls, smaller testing populations, and lower annual hours without reducing coverage. Applies equally to SOX controls and to close controls.

03

Workflow and Reporting Automation

Build the recurring work out of the calendar. Evidence collection, sampling, reconciliation, status reporting, and issue tracking, wired into the systems your team already uses.

04

Agent Deployment

Deploy and configure AI agents inside your environment with the governance, logging, and human review gates that make the output defensible to an external auditor. Cherry Hill Advisory is an Anthropic partner, and the agents we deploy for clients are built the same way as the AI bench behind our own AI-enabled internal audit services.

Application

Where We Apply It

The capability is horizontal. The processes are not. These are the workflows we are most often asked to rebuild.

Internal Audit

Audit plan execution and status
Workpaper and evidence collection
Sampling and test execution
Issue tracking and follow-up
QAIP and audit committee reporting
Continuous auditing routines

Risk and Compliance

SOX evidence and testing cycles
Control matrix and narrative upkeep
Segregation of duties monitoring
Third-party risk workflows
Policy attestation and exceptions
Regulatory reporting assembly

Finance

Month-end close sequencing
Account and bank reconciliations
Recurring and accrual entries
Reporting and flux commentary
AP, AR, and approval workflow
System integration and data movement

Who Does the Work

Built by Auditors Who Also Write Code.

The people doing the build are internal auditors from our own team, trained on AI process automation. They have run SOX programs, tested controls, and sat through the audit committee meeting where the finding got read out. Implementing a tool is the easy part. Knowing which control can be automated without weakening it, what evidence an external auditor will accept, and where the independence line sits is the work.

That judgment is the same bench behind our AI-enabled internal audit services and our AI governance practice. One practice, three doors: we can audit your AI, govern your AI, or build with it inside your function.

Internal Auditors First

Every engineer on the bench came up through internal audit or finance before they were trained on AI process automation. They read a control matrix before they read a codebase.

Anthropic Partner

Cherry Hill Advisory is an Anthropic partner. The agents we deploy carry the logging, human review gates, and controlled access that our own AI audit team works under.

One AI-Enabled Practice

The Predictive Risk Assessment Engine, Segra, Prism, Calibr, and the rest of our AI audit toolbox were built by this bench. What we build for you comes from the same place.

Delivery Model

Embedded, Not Handed Off.

An engineer sits inside your function for the duration of the build. Not a discovery phase, a deck, and a departure. The person who scopes the work writes the code, and a senior practitioner sits alongside to keep the build inside professional standards.

Embedded

The engineer works in your environment, on your systems, in your cadence. Not offshore, not a ticket queue.

Paired with a Practitioner

A former CAE or controller reviews every build for control implications, auditability, and standards alignment.

Transferred

Your team owns and operates what we build. Documentation, runbooks, and handover are in scope, not a change order.

Independence

Where We Build, We Do Not Assure.

Engagement Boundary

If Cherry Hill Advisory builds automation over a control, Cherry Hill Advisory does not provide independent assurance over that same control. The separation is defined in writing at engagement start and documented in the scope of work.

Three reasons this is stated up front rather than handled quietly in scoping:

Your external auditor will ask
Your audit committee will ask
Independence is what makes the rest of our work worth having

Where an engagement touches both sides, we staff separate teams with separate reporting lines, or we decline the assurance side.

How to Start

Engagement Shapes

Shape Duration What you get Best when
Discovery Sprint 2 to 3 weeks Process map, automation opportunity register, effort and benefit estimate per candidate, sequenced build plan You know the process is heavy but not where the leverage is. Works for an audit cycle, a SOX program, or a close.
Build Engagement 8 to 16 weeks A defined set of automations built, tested, documented, and transferred to your team The target is already identified and funded
Embedded Retainer Ongoing Standing engineering capacity inside the function, sequenced against your audit plan or close calendar Automation is a program, not a project

Common Questions

Questions We Get

What is a forward deployed engineer?

An engineer who works inside your organization rather than from a vendor's office. They sit in your environment, use your systems, attend your stand-ups, and build against your actual constraints instead of a specification written six weeks earlier. The model comes out of the AI labs. Ours are internal auditors trained on AI process automation, paired with audit and finance practitioners so the build holds up under review.

How does this connect to your AI-enabled internal audit services? +
How is this different from RPA or buying a software platform? +
Do you work inside our systems or yours? +
Can you automate SOX controls without creating an independence problem? +
What does an engagement cost? +
We are a finance team, not internal audit. Is this the right page? +
Who owns what you build? +

Start With the Process, Not the Tool.

A two week Discovery Sprint tells you which parts of your audit, control, or close process are worth automating and what each one is worth. Everything after that is a funding decision.

Schedule a Scoping Call