Episode 49: Trust, Technology and the Questions Every Business Should Be Asking Right Now

Trust, Technology and the Questions Every Business Should Be Asking Right NowThree stories crossed our desk this month, and although they look unrelated at first glance, they all circle back to the same question: as technology and global ways of working accelerate, what actually earns trust?Governance will define the winners of the AI eraIn a recent piece for Chartered Accountants Worldwide, Fauzia Safdar Khan, Senior Director for Sustainability and Climate at Crowe Pakistan, makes a case worth sitting with. Most conversations about AI focus on speed and competitive advantage. Her argument is that neither determines whether AI creates lasting value. Governance does.This is especially true in sustainability, where stakeholders have moved past accepting pledges and now expect evidence, backed by reliable data and clear oversight. AI can help process that evidence, but the technology itself is far from weightless. It runs on physical infrastructure: data centres, semiconductors, water and electricity, all of which carry their own environmental cost. Fauzia calls this one of the defining paradoxes of the next decade, and her answer isn't to slow adoption down. It's to govern it properly, using frameworks such as ISO 42001 the same way financial controls have long supported reporting.Her conclusion lands squarely in familiar territory for Chartered Accountants: the organisations that succeed won't be the ones with the most advanced technology. They'll be the ones people trust most.Have your say in our global AI studyChartered Accountants Worldwide, working with our member institutes and Ipsos, has launched the second wave of a global study into how AI is reshaping the profession. Wave one gave us an initial picture. Wave two tracks how perspectives are shifting across traditional AI, generative AI and agentic AI.It takes about fifteen minutes to complete, every response is confidential, and results are only ever published in anonymised, aggregated form. The findings will directly shape strategy and leadership decisions across the global profession, so the accuracy of that picture depends on members taking part.Click here to launch the surveyThe hidden risks of remote working across bordersA special edition of Difference Makers Discuss, recorded for our UAE community, tackled a scenario that plays out in offices everywhere: an employee asks to work from another country for a few weeks, and someone says yes without thinking it through. Host Carla Wilson was joined by international tax specialist Hugo van Zyl and HR leader Sarah Brooks to unpack what that yes can actually cost.The biggest misconception is that a visa decides tax status. It doesn't. Countries count days differently, and a UAE employment contract earning no personal income tax at home doesn't mean the income stays tax free abroad, particularly if part of the salary is recharged to a branch in the country the employee is working from.Then there's permanent establishment risk, where a business itself becomes taxable in another country. The usual trigger isn't a laptop in a hotel room. It's a senior person who habitually signs contracts on behalf of the employer while abroad, and the consequences can extend well past a single tax bill.The advice from both speakers was consistent: treat remote working as a governed exception, not a casual perk. Put a written policy in place, document approvals properly, and don't run the decision on WhatsApp.Governance is the thread running through all three stories this month. Whether it's AI, sustainability data or a request to work abroad for a few weeks, the organisations that come out ahead are the ones that can explain their decisions, not just make them quickly.Hear the full conversation on all three topics in Episode 49 of Chartered Accountants Global Update, available now.