CFOs must become process experts to drive long-term success with AI
We are entering a phase of the AI hype cycle in which companies must demonstrate tangible results from their AI adoption and investments. A recent PWC study indicates that productivity has surged significantly in sectors with high AI exposure. The report found that productivity growth was almost five times as rapid in parts of the economy where AI usage was highest.
This is particularly encouraging for organisations implementing AI initiatives to gain a competitive edge. For instance, CEOs in the banking and financial sectors have noted that competitive advantage will hinge on who possesses the most advanced generative AI.
The role of the CFO will become crucial to gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage as more and more businesses begin experimenting with AI. 60% of CEOs are pushing for rapid AI adoption, raising the question: who will emerge as the real winners and losers in this AI-driven landscape?
Organisations that can link productivity gains to ongoing innovation and profitability in the early days will stay ahead. With a deep understanding of the business, CFOs are uniquely positioned to guide their organisations in harnessing AI’s potential to transform operations and enhance organisational outcomes.
As CFOs step into this strategic role, they must also become process experts, especially those in early-stage organisations where they often find themselves also wearing the COO’s shoes. That is partly because in today’s SaaS-driven environment, the IT operation has lost some of its traditional gatekeeping role, no longer controlling the flow of technology adoption. Anyone within the business can purchase point solutions, leading to data sprawl across disparate systems. This shift demands that CFOs understand automation and process integration to link these scattered solutions, avoiding inefficiencies that could challenge the effectiveness of AI initiatives down the line.
With the current hype around AI, CFOs and other influential budget holders must have a thorough understanding of genuine AI capabilities. CFOs can help define the organisational priority outcomes any AI initiative needs to focus on to deliver real, measurable value to the business. For instance, A CFO is well positioned to define what AI success could look like for the finance team or how AI can help drive efficiencies in areas of the business primed for optimisation.
Additionally, AI in its current form is hugely beneficial in creating a clearer point of view of an organisation’s financial performance through normalising and cleansing data. At Nintex, we have been focusing on pulling in AI to effectively structure unstructured data. AI tool sets are available that help you analyse your cloud deployment structure, providing insights into spending and identifying inefficiencies. However, this level of insight into the business can only happen if the CFO is across the business processes and workflows.
For AI to deliver on its promise, the CFO role can be a critical component in that transformation story for organisations. That is why CFOs need to ensure that there is sufficient investment in prioritising data quality and governance within organisations as this is an integral component of any AI strategy – accurate, clean, and well-organised data is the foundation upon which successful AI models are built.
The role of the CFO is rapidly evolving with the emergence of AI. Those who embrace this change, becoming not only financial stewards but also process experts and AI strategists, will be instrumental in driving their organisations’ success. By focusing on process optimisation, data quality, CFOs can harness the full potential of AI to transform the organisation and deliver sustained competitive advantage. The real winners in this AI-driven landscape will be those who can effectively integrate AI into their operations while keeping an eye on long-term innovation and profitability.