CFOs, Are You Ready for an AI-Driven Future? 🚀

The very core of business is shifting across industries. Whereas every organization used to be referred to as a “software business” the focus is now shifting to AI. 

With endless AI solutions constantly in development, but limitations restricting every company from creating their own AI, implementing new technologies into the core of your organization is a must — sooner rather than later. 

Fortunately, industry trailblazers like Microsoft are developing solutions that provide frameworks and guidance for what could be the bare minimum in developing or implementing AI into your unique use case. 

So how can you get started with AI with your finance team? And which skills or abilities should you hone to ensure a smooth (and ethical) implementation? 

Ahmed Adel, Director of Data, Apps & AI Cloud Solution Architecture at Microsoft joined us to provide some guidance…

Understanding the Massive Impact of Small Initiatives 

AI doesn’t just improve productivity and efficiency — it has a massive impact on how businesses go to market. 

When the right AI is implemented in the best possible way, the way your business functions in its entirety shifts. These new technologies can literally become your differentiator. 

While some solutions may seem small, shaving a little off of your team’s time spent on low-level tasks can make a massive difference in their satisfaction, ultimately leading to higher efficiency and creative innovation.

Where To Get Started…

With AI adoption different according to need and use case, it can be hard to know where to begin testing. But once you understand where the new tech can be most beneficial for your organization, it’s critical not to delay too long. Not sure where to start? Try this: 

Tap into your team. What tools do each of your team members use on a daily basis? Whether they’re relying on meeting summaries, presentation generators or high-level data analysis tools, ask each member of your team to share what they’re using and why. With several possible solutions to explore, your next-best technology could already be used by individuals on your team. 

Collaborate. Brainstorm the team’s biggest inefficiencies. Do your finance professionals spend a lot of time summarizing data and information? Or are they bogged down with report writing and team correspondence? Likely, there are AI solutions that can be explored and tested to ease the repetitive and tedious workload and free up their time for expert-level activities. 

Validate a business case: Some AI and tools are ‘nice-to-haves’ and lend themselves very little to ROI or improved employee productivity (and satisfaction). Other tools are genuinely useful across your finance team and organization as a whole. Invest time into analyzing the cost of lost opportunity to determine if the tool actually improves the organization and its functionality. If the answer is ‘no,’ it’s time to move on and explore more options. 

With shifting to the core of business, hesitancy can drift in. However, the cost of lost opportunity can be easily calculated — and it’s stark. Now is the time to begin experimenting with AI and implementing the best new technologies into your business practices. 

Still not quite sure? Tune into our conversation with Ahmed Adel on The CFO Show to learn more about the AI-driven future of business including how and where to start, which considerations to make, how to ensure you stay aligned with ethics and legal obligations and ultimately, how AI can take your team (and business) to the next level. 

Use AI To Drive Innovation in Finance…

As in many industries, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the world of finance, which means that finance teams must embrace AI to stay ahead of the curve. However, AI adoption can seem daunting, so leaders are hesitant to act and consequently miss out on the benefits offered by digital transformation. This listen-and-learn course will demystify AI finance applications by exploring practical integrations that add value and offer ways to mitigate common pitfalls.

In case you missed it…

CFOs interested in modernizing the finance function are seeking out those with solid soft skills. Their reasoning? As Meg Bear, Controller at Turner Enterprises, Inc., tells it, technical skills can be trained but soft skills are tougher to train and harder to come by. What soft skills should you hire for? We have some thoughts…

What’s next…

As finance roles evolve, so do the hard skills needed to fulfill new responsibilities. At the heart of this evolution is data interpretation – not just financial data, but all kinds of business data that can provide critical insights into how the company is doing and what its future might look like. We’re joined by Thomas Ho, Vice President, Professional Services of ProLytics Consulting Group to break down the hard skills critical for today’s finance team's success.