Jin Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | The Disruptors

Fieldguide’s AI rewrites the rules that have held audit back for decades.

The Disruptors

With Liz Farr

Like many auditors, Jin Chang didn’t enjoy the manual work. “Why did I get a four-year degree to do this matching exercise between evidence and samples being tested?” he recalls thinking. “Why aren’t machines doing this better and faster?” 

So he founded Fieldguide, “the platform I wished I had, and the AI agents that we're building are the AI team members I wish I had to collaborate with.” His mission with FieldGuide is to automate the tedious work that drives talented people away from audit, allowing human practitioners to focus on judgment, strategy, and client relationships so “they have a promising career that I didn't see as attractive back then.” 

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As Chang explains, with audit and assurance, “there's this rising set of client demands and expectations.” Clients demand quality assurance at reasonable fees. However, “quality assurance and reasonable fees don't often go hand in hand. They're often opposite levers.” This tension creates what he calls “a downward spiral of burnout,” where junior auditors struggle to deliver quality work within tight budgets. This results in auditors questioning their career choices. 

Adding to these pressures are uncompetitive salaries and unclear promotion paths. However, Chang views generative and agentic AI as a transformational technology that simultaneously enhances both quality and efficiency.