Most of us have already integrated AI into our daily routines: refining emails, summarizing articles, reviewing code, creating content, finding information, and preparing meetings. AI has become the personal assistant we’ve longed for over the years!
What is the next step? The question for CFOs is, how will AI be integrated into our Finance operations tools? Or is it already there? Here are three ways we can leverage AI right now.
- Using AI as a Bank of Knowledge, AI can provide CFOs with access to a vast repository of financial procedures and best practices, enabling them to stay on top. Here are some examples:
– Offering guidance on complex accounting treatments
– Gaining insights into industry standards, best practices, and innovative approaches
– Providing updates on the latest regulatory changes and compliance requirements
– Offering frameworks, methodologies, and templates
- Leveraging AI for Automation Financial solutions will continue to integrate AI to automate repetitive tasks, offering better integration between financial systems and smoother workflows.For instance, with Copilot for Finance, you can gain insight into customer balances and access PDF invoices directly from Outlook without switching back to the ERP. Watch the demo here. Other examples could be:
– Accounts Reconciliation: Blackline and Floquast already integrate AI in their solutions so that all types of accounts reconciliation can be done with a snap of your fingers– Invoice Processing: by leveraging AI, Solutions like Kofax (now Tungsten Automation) automate and optimize the accounts payable process, extracting data from invoices, managing workflows, and categorizing and processing invoices– Payment Scheduling: AI can help you adjust payment dates based on current cash flow, supplier terms, and opportunities for early payment discounts
– Financial reporting: Power BI and similar solutions enhance your Record-to-Report process by automatically extracting data from various sources, performing complex calculations, and generating real-time financial reports
- Utilizing AI for Massive Data Set Analysis AI’s impressive data analysis capabilities can transform financial operations by identifying opportunities, detecting fraud and errors, and providing predictive insights for better decision-making. AI can be used for:
– Fraud Detection: Detecting anomalies in transaction data.- Compliance: Tracking and identifying compliance issues.– Spend Analysis: Analyzing spending patterns to identify cost-saving opportunities.
– Real-time insights: giving you real-time visibility and identification of variances and outliers.
– Predictive Analytics: Using historical data to predict future financial outcomes or simulate different scenarios.
These are just a few examples, and many more applications will emerge in the future. By leveraging AI across the three pillars of knowledge, automation, and big data analysis, CFOs can significantly enhance efficiency, accuracy, and strategic insights in their operations.
It’s time to embrace AI!
Do you need help or additional insight on implementing AI? I would love to talk. Schedule a call with me here.