Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are some of the top-paid business executives for a reason: Without their insights and expertise, businesses could not stay profitable. But, as with so many positions in the modern age, many CFOs cannot keep up with the sheer volume of information they receive on a daily basis. Using artificial intelligence in finance helps automate previously manual processes while allowing CFOs to leverage more data from contract analytics than ever before. As a result, AI for CFOs is a key driver in business profitability, especially for growing companies.
How AI Is Transforming CFO Roles and Responsibilities
Traditionally, CFOs have been top finance professionals tasked with running a business’s entire finance department. They make strategic decisions and communicate those to business leaders while managing relentless, repetitive tasks like data entry, finance querying, and reconciliation.
AI finance tools are transforming the roles and responsibilities of CFOs. Instead of spending hours each day entering data and spot-checking that data for errors, CFOs can rely on finance AI to tackle these mundane tasks. This frees CFOs to spend more time overseeing financial operations, evaluating predictive analytics reports, and communicating with business leaders.
From Traditional Analysis to Strategic Advisory
One of the key ways that AI for CFOs is changing the industry is by transforming finance leaders into strategic advisors for their companies. AI in finance tackles many of the duties traditionally performed by finance teams, from tracking budgets and expenses to automating reporting and providing actionable insights to companies.
Far from stealing jobs from CFOs, however, AI and finance teams can work together to create more comprehensive financial plans for businesses. Analytical AI solutions can help businesses with risk assessments. CFOs, in turn, take on the role of financial forecasters and planners by using those insights to advise leaders in their companies about which actions to take and, just as importantly, when to take them.
Enhanced Decision-Making With Data-Driven Insights
In the past, CFOs and business leaders relied a lot on their guts when making business decisions. AI for CFOs takes a lot of the guesswork out of growing a business. Robotic process automation allows AI programs to comb through and analyze more data in less time than humans ever could. As a result of these finance AI tools, CFOs can back their predictions up with real-time data and facts.
This has two important roles in a business. First, it allows leaders to make more well-informed decisions with all possible data in their pockets. Second, it ensures that even when business decisions do not pan out, CFOs and their supervisors know that they made the best decision possible with their information.
AI Technologies Revolutionizing Cost Management
Another key factor in using generative AI in finance is that it can help businesses cut costs. For one thing, finance organizations don’t have to invest as much money paying overtime for employees or dealing with turnover when finance professionals feel overworked. But these hidden benefits are only one way that AI for CFOs helps revolutionize cost management. There are also ways that using AI for finance management cuts down on costs in visible, trackable ways.
Machine Learning for Expense Tracking and Reduction
Machine learning technology uses algorithms to automate expense tracking, monitoring, and analysis. The more a company uses the same AI platform, the better the machine learning algorithms understand the business’s expenses and needs. Anomaly detection finance functions allow these platforms to detect outliers from normal spending habits, which can help businesses identify errors, fraud attempts, or inefficiencies.
Machine learning techniques can also predict future expenses based on historical data. This allows businesses to predict upcoming changes to their finances based on things like spending patterns, seasonality, and other relevant factors. This helps businesses make data-driven decisions on things like when to invest their money, when to create new products, and when to cut expenses and plan for lean times.
AI-Powered Procurement and Supply Chain Optimization
AI for CFOs integrates with other business technologies to help with procurement and supply chain optimization. For example, real-time monitoring and tracking of goods through a business’s supply chain provides organizations with information about inventory levels, order statuses, and transportation movements. This allows businesses to identify bottlenecks, anticipate disruptions, and proactively manage supply chain risks without upsetting their customers or impacting their bottom line.
AI-powered automation technologies can streamline procurement and supply chain processes by eliminating manual tasks like data entry, document processing, and order fulfillment. This allows organizations to improve operational efficiency, reduce errors, and free up resources for more strategic activities.
How To Start Implementing AI for Financial Process Automation
One of the top ways to implement AI for financial process automation is to identify your current pain points when it comes to finance management. Once you know the finance functions you want AI to address, you can research the best AI-as-a-service businesses on the market.
Start small when you first begin integrating AI into your business practices. Machine learning technology means that AI gets to know your business and improves over time. Just as you would take the time to train a new employee, you’ll need to spend some time training your AI tools, using historical data from your company to help it learn patterns, relationships, and anomalies relevant to your financial processes.
Once you feel the technology has a handle on your operational models, you can begin integrating it into your financial operations. Monitor your AI-powered processes regularly to assess their impact and identify areas for improvement. Measure key performance indicators (KPIs) such as accuracy, efficiency, and cost savings to evaluate the effectiveness of automation. Gather feedback from end-users and stakeholders to identify pain points and address challenges.
How Terzo Can Help
Using AI for CFOs can give businesses a competitive edge by automating mundane processes, providing more data-driven financial insights, and freeing CFOs up to perform more strategic planning tasks. Terzo is a leading AI-as-a-service brand that can help you integrate AI and machine learning technology into your daily operations. Get started by contacting our sales team today.
