PhD Candidate Nicolás Lagos Awarded 2025 Aramco Internal Audit Dissertation Scholarship

PhD candidate Nicolás Lagos has been awarded the 2025 Aramco Internal Audit Dissertation Scholarship which was established by the Internal Audit Foundation, of The Institute of Internal Auditors, to encourage internal audit studies by doctoral candidates.

His dissertation, "Exploring the Challenges in the Use of Artificial Intelligence for Detecting Public Corruption: An Analysis from Public Auditing," examines how audit institutions are adopting automation and machine learning to transform data collection and analysis, a shift framed as part of an emerging “algorithmic bureaucracy.” From a public management perspective, the study explores both the benefits and risks of these tools for discretion, legitimacy, and professional judgment. Using large-scale surveys and experimental methods with Chilean public auditors, it analyzes auditors’ support for AI, the role of algorithmic transparency, and how human-AI collaboration affects perceptions of effectiveness.

Lagos is a Fulbright grantee from Chile with a bachelor’s in public administration and master’s in government and public administration from the University of Chile. He has focused his career on the fight against corruption, and since 2015 has been teaching about democracy, ethics, and integrity. In 2017, he won the Latin American Center for Developmental Administration’s (CLAD) research paper competition, “Integrity and Ethics in Public Service.” For six years, he worked in the Cabinet of the General Comptroller’s Office of the Republic of Chile coordinating several anti-corruption projects.