Artificial intelligence is expected to have a significant impact on corporate finance teams over the next decade. From enhancing data-driven decision-making to automating daily tasks to monitoring compliance, there is potential for significant changes in the way finance departments operate as AI capabilities advance rapidly across 10 key areas.
While some job displacement may occur, the introduction of machine learning insights and automation primarily provides an opportunity to enhance the capabilities of finance professionals and allow them to focus more strategically. By uncovering where AI will soon take off, treasurers can proactively plan to maximize profits while mitigating risk.
Intelligent integration of AI into forecasting, risk management, customer service, and more can significantly improve financial performance.
However, as intelligent software reshapes capabilities, it is still wise to carefully assess and prepare for the broader implications across roles and responsibilities.
Where will GenAI have the biggest impact?
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Enhanced decision making
GenAI revolutionizes decision-making for corporate finance teams. By continuously analyzing vast amounts of up-to-date data from multiple internal and external sources, AI can provide financial professionals with more complete insights and more accurate forecasts than were previously possible.
This enables finance teams to make faster, more data-driven decisions, reducing risk and increasing efficiency.
AI-generated recommendations also allow treasurers to model and compare the likely outcomes of multiple decision paths before choosing the best option.
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Streamlined operations
GenAI can automate many of the mundane and repetitive tasks that currently take up a significant portion of finance teams’ time. This includes important tasks such as data entry, account reconciliation, report generation, and transaction tracking.
GenAI introduces robotic process automation and self-learning algorithms that can handle these important but routine responsibilities, freeing up significant time for finance teams to focus on more strategic initiatives that create value.
AI agents can also perform operations faster and more accurately around the clock.
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Improved risk management
GenAI greatly helps finance teams better manage both financial and operational risks. By continuously examining historical internal data, external market signals, and news trends, predictive artificial intelligence can predict potential disruptions and downside risks earlier and more accurately.
AI can proactively mitigate these risks and provide data-backed recommendations on the most effective ways to minimize impact.
Additionally, continuous AI monitoring allows financial risk managers to not only respond to crises after they occur, but also to stay on top of emerging threats and adjust their responses accordingly.
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Enhanced prediction
Advanced machine learning algorithms significantly improve the accuracy, breadth, and customization of short- and long-term financial forecasts. By drawing connections within large sets of historical internal data on past performance and analyzing real-time external market variables, economic indicators, and competitive trends, AI predictions become much more customized.
Quarterly or annual forecasts can be complemented by more dynamic rolling forecasts that provide early notification of revisions. By disaggregating forecasts along multiple business dimensions, finance leaders can also identify trends in changing segments or product lines faster.
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Increased efficiency
The automation, advanced analytics, and streamlined processes provided by GenAI will significantly improve the efficiency of your overall financial operations. With computers handling most of the mundane and repetitive tasks, human finance team members are freed up to focus their specialized skills on the most value-added initiatives.
Intelligent algorithms can also optimize and enhance financial workflows by identifying redundancies, delays, and pain points. Smooth connections between systems. This increases the ability of Treasury leaders to provide thorough oversight of critical functions without getting bogged down in managing day-to-day operations.
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Improved compliance
GenAI offers new capabilities to help finance teams strictly adhere to ever-evolving regulatory reporting requirements. An AI learning engine can continuously and automatically monitor all financial transactions for deviations from standards that could indicate illegal or unethical activity leading to governance failures. Smart algorithms also stay up-to-date on the latest compliance rule changes and proactively flag any necessary adjustments to systems and procedures to remain compliant. With AI monitoring compliance, Treasury leaders can be confident that there are comprehensive safeguards against lax governance that can lead to fines and damages.
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Enhance customer service
For CFOs, business units, and finance teams that provide specialized advisory services in-house to locations around the world, GenAI can significantly increase the level of value-added support. AI assistants can handle basic inquiries, data requests, documentation needs, and other day-to-day interactions, allowing finance groups to focus on providing more strategic insights and recommendations tailored to each customer.
Pattern analysis also allows Treasury to better understand its customers, including their risk preferences and forecasting needs.
AI monitoring provides earlier and more proactive warning of emerging financial issues that your customers may face.
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Increased innovation
In addition to improving efficiency, GenAI also delivers greater benefits by driving innovation in financial products, operations, and competitive positioning. By uncovering previously invisible patterns and connections in data, AI offers finance teams the opportunity to develop entirely new services that deliver powerful value for internal and external customers.
AI also facilitates process innovation leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning and blockchain.
Additionally, the AI engine can leverage market signals and competitive intelligence to identify areas where Treasury can differentiate itself from its competitors.
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Improved data management
For data-dependent finance teams, GenAI enables a superior approach to collecting, organizing, accessing, and leveraging data across disconnected systems. Machine learning algorithms automatically classify, link, clean, and standardize this data into a usable format.
Natural language processing also allows finance members to query the data cache using simple conversational searches.
By breaking down data silos, finance staff at all levels can easily find, analyze, and share the information they need, when they need it, without the need for extensive or outdated reports.
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potential turnover
Finally, while GenAI brings many benefits to processes and decision-making, the ability to automate routine manual tasks comes with the risk of long-term redeployment for some roles. Over time, algorithms will reduce the need for data entry, reporting, compliance, and even position forecasting, which are currently the responsibility of treasurers.
But this technology-driven disruption also creates opportunities for finance team members to upskill and take on more strategic roles focused on oversight, relationship management, and innovative service delivery.
Careful change management can ensure that AI improves, rather than replaces, finance talent.
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