Tom Hood is the EVP of Business Engagement & Growth at AICPA-CIMA and leads the Future of Finance initiative in the Americas.
The artificial intelligence revolution is in full swing, and AI adoption by finance leaders and organizations is advancing quickly.
AI is changing the work of finance professionals by automating repetitive operations, improving fraud detection, offering real-time insights and modernizing audit processes. And beyond the automation of routine tasks, AI is transforming the way finance professionals work, allowing them to focus on more strategic, impactful work.
AI adoption by finance professionals has increased 21 percentage points in the past year with 58% using the technology in 2024, according to a Gartner survey.
Finance leaders face a critical inflection point in the AI revolution. Organizations must either adapt to harness AI’s transformative capabilities or risk falling behind in an increasingly technology-driven profession. The stakes are high—both in terms of the opportunities presented by AI adoption and the risks of inaction.
However, the proper implementation of AI within a finance function cannot be realized without strong leadership. Finance leaders have a critical role to play in navigating this transformation, guiding their teams through the anxieties and uncertainties, and championing AI adoption.
As the finance profession embraces these AI technologies, adjustments must be made. Professionals must focus on developing the necessary skills to use AI properly, and organizations and finance leaders must ensure they are providing the proper road maps, tools and opportunities for their professionals.
Building An AI Road Map
Many of us are excited about the incredible potential of AI, while also having some reservations about its real-world applications, limitations and risks. To address this discrepancy, finance leaders need to take concrete steps to define the role AI will play and strategically integrate it into their activities to help their teams maximize its benefits while mitigating risks.
The first step is to lay out a clear, compelling vision for the future. Finance leaders need to be clear about what role they expect AI to play and outline desired outcomes, such as streamlining processes, especially as the demand for finance business partnering support and data continues to increase. That vision should not focus on AI as a tool to replace essential finance professionals but rather as a mechanism to enhance and augment their role in creating value.
The next step is moving from vision to action by creating a plan outlining key milestones and resources needed to implement AI initiatives. Within their plan, finance leaders should also include successful use cases, address data governance concerns and establish clear operating frameworks.
Our implementation plan at the Association of Certified Professional Accountants has three key phases. Phase 1 is the Initial Foundation, focused on creating our “AI ambition” and vision for both our organization and our members and developing AI use policies and data governance. Phase 2 is Controlled Expansion, where we test and learn. This involves establishing use cases and pilots using private instances of GenAI tools. Phase 3 is Strategic Integration and Scaling. In this stage, we identify revenue-generating AI applications and innovative customer experiences and incorporate AI into our strategic plan.
Throughout implementation, finance leaders must maintain strong partnerships between finance, IT and HR teams. The road map should prioritize early wins while building toward more sophisticated applications that drive strategic value.
Finally, as with any change management project, finance leaders will know that open and transparent communication is essential to create and maintain trust.
Building A Future-Ready Workforce
We all have our own views on how AI will impact the future of work and how organizations should adapt to this technology. However, we can all agree on the fact that if we want to make the most of AI, we cannot solely rely on our teams’ existing skill sets. Finance leaders need to ensure their teams are empowered to embrace AI and adopt a forward-looking learning mindset.
One of the keys to achieving this goal will be to create a strong learning culture within your team, one that values curiosity and gives teams access to learning resources. This involves strategically investing in team development by prioritizing resources that will equip them for success in an AI-driven world—think data analytics, machine learning and business intelligence.
The New Mandate For Finance Leaders
Finance leaders cannot afford to stand on the sidelines as AI rapidly redefines the role of the finance team and of its business partners, such as IT, marketing and HR. Embracing AI is essential to keep finance at the forefront of innovation. To prepare, they should take several steps.
• Showcase successful use cases and how AI is already driving tangible results within the finance team, such as providing strategic insights and enhancing decision making.
• Champion the integration of AI into business planning, including continuous forecasting, scenario planning and real-time performance monitoring, to enable their organizations to become more agile and data-driven.
• Demonstrate how AI can provide a more comprehensive view of value creation by working with business partners to develop metrics that capture the impact of intangible assets.
For example, to measure the value of innovation and digital transformation, companies could look at R&D investment as a percentage of revenue, tracking how much is invested in research and development compared to revenue. The percentage of digital transactions or automation tools used within processes is a good indicator of the organization’s digital transformation progress.
Talent and people metrics could include employee engagement scores or retention rates of high-performing employees
• Stay curious and keep your rate of learning greater than the rate of change!
Finance leaders have a key role to play when it comes to promoting the potential benefits of AI and encouraging its integration. But to be successful, they need to embrace a new mandate, one that requires visionary thinking; a broader skill set; a more strategic, data-driven mindset; and a deep commitment to building a future-ready finance function. By fully embracing this new challenge, finance leaders can shape a future where finance is not merely a steward of resources but a strategic driver of business success.
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