Chartered Accountants Ireland was shortlisted for the Best Digital Transformation — Financial & Professional Services category at the Digital Transformation & AI Awards 2025, put forward last year for an initiative that applied immersive technology to a capability gap that has long challenged the accountancy profession, developing a VR-based learning environment specifically designed to build professional scepticism in auditors at the earliest stages of their careers.

The initiative was developed on the recognition that professional scepticism is not a skill that can be effectively conveyed through conventional instruction alone.

By placing trainee auditors within simulated scenarios that demanded active judgement, critical questioning, and independent reasoning, the VR experience created a learning environment where the mindset the profession requires could be practised and internalised rather than simply described.

The Best Digital Transformation — Financial & Professional Services category assessed entries on strategic clarity, implementation quality, and outcomes delivered for the organisation and the profession it serves.

Judges also examined the steps taken to change established ways of working, the organisational commitment behind the strategy, and the measurable impact the transformation produced across the body's projects and initiatives over the preceding 18 months.

Chartered Accountants Ireland's submission set out how the VR programme moved from concept to deployment, detailing the technology decisions, development milestones, and the specific professional development outcomes the initiative was designed to produce.

The Digital Transformation & AI Awards recognises organisations driving evidence-based digital change across Irish enterprise and public life. Chartered Accountants Ireland's inclusion on the shortlist placed it among the cohort the judging panel identified as setting a credible standard for innovation-led transformation in Ireland's financial and professional services sector.

For more information on finalists, past winners, and judging insights, visit the official Digital Transformation & AI Awards website.