How AI Can Drive Innovation in Finance Right Now
In our 2023 Finance Leaders Survey, over 700 finance leaders told us their budgets are increasing, and in the next three years AI tops the list of investment priorities. But these leaders are not chasing the latest trend. Rather, they see the real-world impacts of adopting AI tools and how these tools can make their departments more efficient and effective.
When we say artificial intelligence can improve how finance departments operate, it is not always clear exactly how expansive and transformative these benefits can be.
Let’s take a look at some of the specifics of how AI tools can help your team achieve gains in efficiency, accuracy and insight.
Anomaly detection
Surfacing and addressing anomalies in your general and sub-ledger data manually can be extremely time consuming and highly error prone. Finance leaders can upgrade this process to use tools built with AI that can automatically detect anomalous transactions.
Once detected, these unusual transactions can be categorized by level of risk to help resolve any problems faster. In fact, AI-based anomaly detection is 10-30 times faster than a rules-based approach. This can drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to run month- and year-end close reports, consolidations, internal audits, and account reconciliations.
The speed and accuracy of AI-based anomaly detection means you can have higher confidence in your numbers and greatly reduce your risk.
Automate repetitive tasks
Up to a third of a finance manager’s time is spent performing routine, repetitive tasks like running or distributing reports. This is an inefficient and costly workflow, especially considering the risk introduced by potential human error.
AI-based virtual assistants can be given instructions using natural language processing to perform these tasks automatically. For example, you can instruct the virtual assistant to “run a quarterly forecast” and have your report quickly, all without having to navigate multiple menus or sifting through spreadsheets.
Faster reporting
A report is only as helpful as the analysis and insights that go along with it. An AI-powered solution can not only generate the report for you, but it can also add relevant line-item annotations.
This commentary means human users no longer need to dig through spreadsheet after spreadsheet to identify actionable insights. The AI-generated analysis provides users with a report that highlights trends, changes, and other relevant information.
When reports can be generated with actionable insights built right in, stakeholders can self-serve whatever report they want, whenever they want. This helps anyone who receives the report to make strategic business decisions faster and more confidently.
Innovate finance with AI
The manual processes that have defined the finance function for decades are still common across the industry. But more and more, finance leaders are eager to invest in AI solutions that will help streamline reporting, forecasting, and other essential but time-consuming processes.
With the help of AI-powered tools, finance professionals can contribute more strategically to the finance department and to the organization overall. And in the coming years, finance leaders have told us they intend to keep investing in AI to innovate finance.
To learn more about what else finance leaders are planning for the future, download the 2023 Finance Leaders Survey.
