The "We're all guessing" - Finance Edition

Last week, I gave you my wild guess on how AI is changing marketing.

This week, it’s time to dive into Finance — but with a twist. A marketing guy talking about FINANCE - sayyyy whatttttt?

Yes I know nothing about Finance, but since we are all guessing, here is my take on how - Generative AI is opening up new ways to analyze, forecast, and strategize in Finance.

1. Generative Business Intelligence (BI) – Beyond Traditional Reporting

This is an emerging category. Rather than relying on pre-set templates or waiting for BI teams to compile reports, Generative BI allows finance teams to ask specific questions and receive insightful answers instantly.

• What this looks like: CFOs and their teams can interact with Generative BI tools to ask complex questions like, “What are the revenue trends for each region this quarter?” or “How would a 10% increase in material costs impact our profit margins?” Generative AI pulls data from multiple sources, synthesizes it, and presents clear, actionable insights. And before you ask, yes of course, for this to happen the data needs to be clean and labelled.
• Why it matters: Generative BI allows for a real-time, interactive approach to data, based on language only. Finance teams can ask questions in natural language and receive detailed, contextualized answers. This allows them to reduce the time spent on crunching data, as well as removing the need to have specific detailed coding skills.

2. Intelligent Automation in Reporting and Compliance

Generative AI also simplifies reporting and compliance, two critical and resource-intensive aspects of finance. With AI’s ability to generate detailed reports and ensure they align with regulatory standards, finance professionals can get a head-start.

• What this looks like: Generative AI can automatically produce and validate reports, identify compliance gaps, and adjust reporting outputs to fit specific regulatory requirements. For instance, an AI-driven report could be tailored to meet tax regulations in different jurisdictions or countries.
• Why it matters: By automating the generation of complex reports and ensuring regulatory compliance, finance professionals can reduce the risk of errors, free up resources, and spend less time on admin work. Of course they will still be fully responsible for the outcome, but they can get ahead.

Why this matters to you, even if you don't work in Finance...

Generative AI is doing more than automating finance tasks — it’s redefining the role of finance professionals and how they use their time.

And I for one, think that's a good thing.

They can spend way less time crunching data, and more time discussing and generating insights on how to grow and manage their business.

Even if you don't work in Finance, being aware of the changes happening with your peers, partners and leadership can help create a community - of learning and embracing AI.

And who DOESN'T need a friend in Finance?

I'll see you next week.

Hey, I’m Marco. I write, speak, train and advise on #marketing and #ai

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