The past year was a catalyst for the already ongoing digital transformation within all businesses. Technologies that were just shy of being introduced, suddenly became the focal point of debate among the users and developers. Remote technologies in social compliance is the most discussed and controversial topic of today. We are also witnessing how information saturation and big data is pushing us to explore new approaches to data management in social compliance. With this shift and the possibility to use new technologies we are faced with a question: 

“How remote auditing and new technologies will affect the level of assurance in social compliance?”

In the summer of 2021 DNV launched a series of “Innovating Business Assurance” aimed to discuss new technologies with the leaders in the fields of sustainability certification, social compliance and digital development. In this series of interviews DNV’s Valentina Gurney, Senior Manager of Supply Chain Assurance and Product Development focusing on Business Intelligence and Human Rights talks with Avedis Seferian, President & CEO Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), Patrick Mallet, Director, Innovations at ISEAL Alliance and Antoine Heuty, Founder and CEO of Ulula, a worker engagement software and analytics platform, to gain insights into these technologies and tools. We discuss remote audits, remote worker engagement as well as blockchain, AI, ML and big data, to understand their functionalities, advantages and misconceptions but also reflect on the future and position of these tools in business assurance.