Making AI Work for the Office of the CFO

There’s no doubt ... in the past couple of years, artificial intelligence (AI) has blown a lot of our minds with impressive capabilities and seemingly unlimited applications. And while finance and accounting (F&A) professionals and leaders have their interest piqued, many are unclear how, when, and where to apply AI in their day-to-day.

In a recent survey BlackLine conducted with Censuswide of 1,300 F&A professionals, more than three-quarters of respondents stated they are excited about the emergence of AI and other new technologies.

But there is also some unease.

Respondents recognize the hurdles the F&A industry faces when it comes to adopting AI technology effectively. The most identified challenge was training AI models to understand and accurately interpret complex financial data. Due to concerns like this, more than a quarter (28%) said not having the right skills on their F&A team today, or the ability to develop them, would be a problem for the adoption of AI technology.

Despite these valid concerns, the latest AI innovations hold the potential to revolutionize the way finance and accounting teams operate. Let’s dive into some key benefits of AI in F&A to learn how this tech can improve the lives of professionals in the industry.

Automate Repetitive Tasks to Improve Accuracy & Save Time

F&A professionals have been using automation for years—it’s nothing new.

Robotic process automation (RPA) uses bots to mimic human interactions with systems, like Excel, to automate routine and rule-based tasks such as data entry, invoice processing, and reconciliations. Machine learning (ML) uses algorithms to help make data-driven predictions, optimize resource allocation, and identify anomalies in financial transactions.

Now ... AI offers a new level of intelligent automation that will be transformative for the industry.

Create Stronger Narratives Around Your Financials

Many professionals are leveraging generative AI to write everything from job descriptions to email subject lines to blogs. But how can F&A teams make AI work for them when it comes to their reports and narratives? Currently, crafting these is a manual and time-consuming activity. In the (not too distant?) future, these manual operations could be transformed into AI-powered processes that improve operational efficiency and free up time.

Now, don’t get us wrong; we’re not saying you can just dump your financials into ChatGPT and it’ll spit out your balance sheet, income statement, or cash flow statement. However, reducing the amount of time spent on written and visual content around these reports could mean huge efficiency gains for F&A teams.

What are some examples that might be coming down the pipe?

• Condensing financial report information into an understandable narrative
• Creating data visualizations
• Explaining reconciling differences
• Providing analytical reviews in the context of environmental factors (supply chain, GDP data, etc.)
• Report disclosures
• Turning complex information into simpler, more digestible information and tailoring reports and analysis to different stakeholders including investors, analysts, regulators, and employees

(And of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that companies must guard their data and financials by implementing robust security measures, maintaining a balance between human expertise and AI technology, and regularly evaluating and monitoring AI algorithms and outputs.)

?

Predictive Guidance

AI can leverage predictive guidance to learn from past behaviors, such as client payment behavior , and proactively prevent future issues. With historical data analysis, predictive modeling, early warning systems, and adaptive learning, AI can be a powerful tool to make strategic decisions, prevent potential issues, and navigate the financial landscape with greater foresight and confidence.

We can see Accounts Receivable and Credit departments, as well as intercompany processes , benefiting greatly from the predictive capabilities of AI.

?

Processing Large Volumes of Financial Data

From our survey, when asked what AI will bring to the F&A industry, one of the top five benefits was processing and analyzing large volumes of data at high speeds.

We all know significant obstacles emerge because of the burden of manual work in finance and accounting. While the desire for increased focus on planning and analysis is well-known, we constantly hear about the volume of data processing and manual work that leaves no time for value-added and strategic activities . Manual work also leaves teams vulnerable to errors that undermine business decision-making and cause re-work. It's also hurting talent attraction and retention .

The massive amount of diverse and unstructured data that F&A teams must process presents both opportunities and challenges. Yes, it holds the potential to provide valuable insights that can drive strategic decisions and innovation, but the sheer volume and complexity of this data can be overwhelming.

Wouldn’t it be great if something could normalize and standardize all that data, expedite data processing workflows, and minimize errors associated with manual data entry? AI tools can.

With streamlined data and processes, F&A teams will be able to work with a coherent dataset to produce reports more quickly, make faster business decisions, improve fraud detection, speed up credit risk assessment, enhance customer service, streamline collections processes, and more.

?

Compliance & Risk Management

AI can be a valuable tool for finance and accounting professionals in addressing compliance and risk management challenges.

For example, by studying patterns in historical information, models can find unusual line items or differences that may show mistakes, fraud, or uncommon financial patterns. This way of spotting anomalies helps improve the overall quality and trustworthiness of data, making F&A professionals feel sure that their analyses are accurate.

Another contribution lies in automating regulatory compliance tasks. The F&A industry must adhere to complex and ever-changing regulations, and AI can assist by continuously monitoring regulatory updates and adjusting compliance procedures accordingly. By learning from historical compliance data and regulatory texts, models can automate the interpretation and implementation of compliance measures, reducing the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties.

Leveraging AI can ultimately make the financial environment safer by helping organizations stay away from legal, compliance, and regulatory issues and ensuring they can proactively handle changes in rules, risks, and unexpected events.

?

AI for the Office of the CFO

Don’t get left behind—it's time to understand what AI can do for the Office of the CFO.

It's clear there are numerous current and future benefits surrounding AI in the F&A space. AI offloads and/or streamlines work so accountants can focus on making the right decisions with the right information. Rather than replacing the role of accountants, it'll reshape their careers in positive ways. For organizations struggling to attract F&A talent, leveraging AI will allow them to promote more strategic work, which could attract new talent.

Therese Tucker, co-CEO of BlackLine, says: “Financial automation technology is now a necessity for F&A departments, and businesses are excited and optimistic about how technology like AI can further streamline processes and augment existing systems. While there is understandable apprehension in the adoption of emerging technologies, therein also lies a valuable opportunity for F&A leaders to enable the upskilling of their teams through automation.”

?

Check out this infographic that highlights more of our survey results around AI.

?

Are you using AI in your F&A processes yet? Are you excited about the prospects or worried about the risks? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!