No. 2: Miklos A. Vasarhelyi

Albert Einstein changed the study of physics with his theory of relativity. As the director of Rutgers University’s Accounting Research Center, Miklos A. Vasarhelyi is doing something similar for accounting with his development of continuous auditing and reporting.

Historically, accounting has provided a rearview mirror approach to audits, looking back at historical records to gauge their validity. But Vasarhelyi — who began developing his groundbreaking approach in the 1980s when he was at Bell Labs — has helped to push the profession into a real-time approach by utilizing artificial intelligence and digital tools to analyze transactions and streaming data as they occur.

One example, “[u]nusual or fraudulent insurance payments,” he said. Under the continuous audit model, “you can examine transactions as they’re being processed and can consider the validity. If it’s outside certain boundaries, it can be stopped,” before a check is cut. The next horizon: using his analytic methods to predict events.