Four years in, Havertys expands its use of Optro with agentic AI for controls testing

A lot has changed since Havertys opened its first furniture store in downtown Atlanta in 1885. The specialty furniture retailer has grown to more than 125 stores across 17 states, serving millions of customers. Staying in business for more than 140 years takes knowing what works and continually finding ways to improve it.

It’s that same mindset that Alex Stephanouk brings to his role as VP of Internal Audit at Havertys. He’s spent 30 years in the profession and the past five leading the company’s internal audit function. One of his first moves after joining the company was implementing Optro for audit and SOX administration. Four years later, he’s ready to get even more from the platform. He wants AI agents to handle routine testing while his auditors focus on process design, business risk, and root cause analysis. “The less time we have to spend testing controls that we expect to pass inspection, the more time we can spend delivering greater value,” he says.

Havertys is putting that vision into action by expanding its use of Optro with Autonomous Testing. Here’s how the company’s four-year relationship with Optro led to this latest addition, and where Stephanouk plans to take it from here.

Building confidence in Autonomous Testing

Havertys had several years of SOX testing behind it in Optro, with the tests, results, and documentation all captured in the platform. The move away from spreadsheets and paper workpapers had given the team a more structured way to manage its audit plan, track time, and analyze its work. As Stephanouk explains, “The consistent and clean data we get with Optro is what gave us the confidence to move to Autonomous Testing.”

Havertys’ experience with third-party testers gave Stephanouk another reason to move forward. The team regularly passed test evidence to third-party testers and achieved reliable results, even when testers changed from year to year. Stephanouk saw that the same work could be taught to an AI agent, saying, “We decided that if we can teach a third-party tester where the individual doing the test could change each year, we could teach an AI agent how to do it.”

Expanding into Autonomous Testing with Optro also reflects how Stephanouk thinks about evolving his department. He describes his approach as “Ready, Fire, Aim” and sees AI adoption as something his team should get ahead of. “We all know that AI is part of the future of all business workflows,” he says. “I’d rather be an early adopter of AI than to have executive management or the Audit Committee pushing me to get on board.”

Adding a system of action to Optro's system of record

Havertys already uses Optro as its system of record for SOX. Now, by adding Autonomous Testing, the company is extending that system of record into a system of action, starting with the IT controls it currently outsources for manual testing.

“We started with IT because we were already outsourcing those tests, so the business case had a clear ROI,” says Stephanouk. “However, once we get all the IT controls tested autonomously, we will expand into the business process controls. Beyond SOX, we have plenty of opportunities to build autonomous testing into our operational audits. We audit our cyber program, our stores, and our distribution centers on a regular basis, and I think ultimately, we will have the vast majority of that done autonomously.”

Beyond that plan, Stephanouk sees a bigger future, made possible because Optro is already Havertys’ system of record well beyond SOX. “We chose Optro for the value of what's possible for a future fully integrated testing solution,” he says. “Our IT and Security teams use Optro as their GRC solution, so they manage and document their controls in the CrossComply module. I would expect that one day, the control can be tested at each occurrence, as documentation is loaded and approved, giving us 100% coverage of all documented controls in real-time or near real-time.”

That testing consistency is what Havertys is solving for. “One risk in our workflows comes from the risk of turnover, whether that's internal or with a third party,” says Stephanouk. “Autonomous Testing will help us address that, while also allowing us to improve efficiency and build a platform for the future of internal audit.”

The objective is to give auditors more time for the work that requires their expertise while keeping the same oversight in place. Managers will continue to review and approve the work, just as they did before Autonomous Testing. “We will still have the same review processes in place as before we implemented Autonomous Testing, so there will always be ‘humans in the loop,’” says Stephanouk. IT Audit Manager Cindi Simpson sees that firsthand. “We’re still responsible for reviewing the work and making sure the results make sense,” she says. “The difference is Optro's autonomous testing can take on more of the work before that review.”

Taking routine testing off auditors’ plates

Havertys' first goal is to have Autonomous Testing execute all IT SOX tests and a portion of business-process SOX tests. The team will measure success in part by how its controls spend shifts, with more of the external support it buys expected to go toward higher-value advisory work rather than testing hours. Automating routine testing would also give Havertys’ internal auditors more time for work that requires human judgment, including complex and non-standard controls, remediation, and program design.

“The real value of Internal Audit is evaluating the design of processes and controls and their effectiveness in mitigating significant business risks,” says Stephanouk. “With Optro, we’ll be able to spend less time testing controls that we expect to pass and more time understanding how our processes and controls perform.”

Taking the lead with Optro and agentic AI

Havertys’ expansion into Autonomous Testing marks the next step in a relationship that has already changed how its audit team manages its work. For other audit leaders considering Autonomous Testing, Stephanouk’s advice is direct: “Don’t let yourself get stuck in analysis mode or a wait-and-see approach. If you’re not leading on AI, you risk falling behind.” For Havertys, that means building on what already works in Optro and bringing agentic AI into its audit program.

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