Coping with changing skill requirements: Does self-affirmation help auditors overcome aversion to specialist advice with higher AI reliance?

The digital evolution in auditing has triggered a rapid shift in auditors’ required skill sets, with audit firms heavily investing in and extolling advanced data analytics and AI capabilities. However, this strong emphasis on newly required digital skills can lead many experienced auditors, who perceive these competencies as their weaker areas, to feel disaffirmed in their abilities. We predict and find, across two experiments, that auditors who feel disaffirmed in their digital skills more defensively discount specialist advice that places higher versus lower reliance on AI, but that an intervention in which auditors affirm their traditional audit skills mitigates this defensive reaction. Absent self-affirmation, higher specialist reliance on AI results in auditors denigrating the competence and the quality of advice that specialists provide. These findings suggest that disaffirmation escalates AI aversion, offering important insights into how audit firms can foster less defensive decision-making in the precipitously evolving audit environment.