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AI Security Audit for Consulting Firms

Consultancies feed AI assistants privileged client material and ship the output as deliverables. An audit tests whether one client's data can reach another, whether documents can hijack the assistant, and whether errors are caught before delivery.

See the workflow →

Four Areas to Test

A sector audit covers each of these areas.

  • Data & confidentiality
  • Knowledge bases (RAG)
  • Assistants & agents
  • Deliverable quality

Core Concepts

The foundations of this sector's AI risk.

Why consulting is different

The product is trusted judgment on confidential information. A leak or an invented fact is a professional and contractual failure, not only a technical one.

  • Cross-client leakage through shared knowledge bases or fine-tuning
  • Prompt injection hidden in client documents, emails or web pages the assistant reads
  • Shadow AI: staff pasting client data into unapproved tools

Contractual and regulatory frame

Here contracts matter as much as law.

  • NDAs and client data-processing terms often restrict AI use
  • GDPR and data-residency obligations for client personal data
  • ISO/IEC 27001 and 42001 as the management frame; EU AI Act duties when the firm deploys or advises on AI

The Audit Workflow

Each phase is methodical and repeatable.

Map data and tools

Inventory approved and unapproved AI tools, the client data they touch and where it is stored.

Test isolation

Check that retrieval and memory respect client and engagement boundaries; try cross-tenant queries.

Attack the assistants

Inject instructions into documents and web content; test agents with file, email and calendar access.

Test the output

Check citations and figures against sources, define review gates before delivery, and report with fixes.

Related Pages

Deep dives into complementary topics.

RAG & Vector DB Security

Embedding poisoning, tenant isolation.

Prompt Injection Attacks

Direct, indirect and RAG injection.

Model Extraction & Privacy Attacks

Model theft, membership inference.

AI Governance & EU AI Act

Obligations, controls, audit evidence.