Chanta Thomas

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Papers

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About

Dr. Chanta Thomas is a leading voice in the emerging field of audit automation, with a focused expertise in the integration of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and human judgment. Her most-cited work, "Attended Process Automation in Audit: A Framework and A Demonstration" (2021, 36 citations), provides a critical bridge between technological capability and professional practice. In this seminal paper, Dr. Thomas directly addresses the pressing need for research on RPA in external auditing, challenging the notion that automation can replace human auditors. Instead, she introduces a framework for "attended" automation—a hybrid workflow where software robots handle repetitive tasks while auditors retain oversight and apply professional skepticism for judgment-intensive decisions. By demonstrating how this model preserves the essential human element in a digitally transformed audit, her work has become a foundational reference for both academics and practitioners navigating the future of the profession. Dr. Thomas’s contributions are particularly notable for their practical orientation, offering a clear roadmap for firms seeking to implement automation without compromising audit quality.