Below is a transcript of a discussion between Fran, the audit manager, and AJ.
FM: AJ, I heard that you like to play video games?
AJ: Yes, I do. Why?
FM: We need someone with good joystick control skills to attend an inventory count. I thought that you might be the best person for this task!
AJ: Hmm, I don’t understand? Video games, joystick control skills, attending an inventory count, I don’t see the connection. I already attended a couple of inventory counts. Pretty boring and easy work, you recount some samples of inventory items, make sure the counts are correct. Look around a bit so see if everyone is following proper count procedures and it’s done.
FM: That was pre-COVID-19. Now with all the COVID restrictions in place, to ensure the safety, our audit firm has decided to utilize drones to help us attend the inventory counts.

AJ: Wow! Drones! That’s so cool. I love flying drones. Am I going to be flying the drone around Hillsburg’s warehouses?
FM: No. We need you to attend an inventory count for another client. It a very large meat processing plant. The plant is dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19. Almost everyone who works at the plant has or had COVID-19. To ensure your safety we don’t want you to come into contact with anyone who works there. We also don’t want you to go inside the facility. Instead, your eyes will be the camera that’s mounted on this drone.
AJ: Wow! This is DJI, Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual. It even has the Smart Controller!
FM: I see that you know your drones.
AJ: That’s one of the coolest drones out there.
FM: If you say so. I don’t know much about drones and have never used one. All I know is that since this drone weighs more than 249 grams, Joe had to get a license for us to be able to use it.
AJ: So how is this actually going to work? Would you like me to fly the drone around and use the camera to somehow recount the inventory? Should I be recording this on video?
FM: Yes, you will fly the drone around and record a video. Then we will let our newly purchased artificial intelligence software (AI) do all the work.
AJ: What AI? That’s so cool. What will AI do?
FM: The video that you will record will be AI-enabled. AI will do an analysis of the recorded images to help us with the recount. The camera that’s mounted on this drone has an x-ray feature, meaning that in addition to recording 4K video it can also take still x-ray images. So that the AI can peek and see what’s inside a box. You will also need to take some x-ray photos.
AJ: This is so cool! Thank you letting me help you with this. I can’t wait to tell my mom about it. She is always on my case, saying that I spend too much time playing video games. But I guess my video games skills are starting to become handy.
FM: Yes, they are. Just remember, you will be flying a real drone and using it to take photos and video. This is not a video game, so you won’t be shooting anyone with the drone.
AJ: Ha-ha . . . I know, I know. I will also try not to crash the drone.

REQUIRED
1. How do you think moving from a person to a drone to observe an inventory count will impact the conduct of the physical observation of inventory? What areas would require significant judgments when observing the inventory and what should be documented in the audit file to support those judgments?
2. List some of the audit steps (audit procedures) for AJ to follow.