At the Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference, BlackLine’s Philippe Omer-Decugis and Josh May argued that trust, not hype, will define AI’s role in finance. From intercompany risks to audit-ready data, CFOs want practical tools that free accountants for strategic work.
When more than 200 CFOs packed into a conference session (with some resorting to sitting on the floor in their expensive suits) the draw was not another generic AI pitch.
For Philippe Omer-Decugis, General Manager for EMEA, Middle East and Africa at BlackLine, and Josh May, the firm’s Solutions Consulting Manager, the challenge facing CFOs is not whether to adopt AI but how to deploy it in a way that is controlled, reliable and genuinely useful.
“If I had to summarise why people invest in BlackLine in one word, it would be trust,” Omer-Decugis said. “CFOs know the data coming out of BlackLine is clean. Combine that with AI, and you have an AI you can trust.”
The pair argue that CFOs are under unprecedented pressure. Boards are asking them to orchestrate transformations across IT, supply chain, marketing and finance while still delivering cost savings, ensuring compliance and mitigating risk.
“They are all being elevated,” Omer-Decugis said. “The question on the table is simple: what are the real use cases I can implement now to create an impact?”
According to May, the issue is not hype but practicality. “Everybody’s talking about AI, but there’s a lack of detailed use cases,” he explained. “CFOs don’t have time to investigate all of this. If their teams had the time, they wouldn’t need the automation.”
Instead, they are looking to vendors with proven platforms that can deliver both security and scalability.
At the heart of BlackLine’s pitch is Verity, its AI-enabled platform whose name derives from the Latin word for truth. The aim is to ensure financial statements are built on data that can be trusted.
“Get your journals right, and matching, reconciliation and reporting become much more automated,” May said. “That frees accountants to focus on explaining movements in the numbers, not manually hunting for errors.”
As a former accountant himself, May framed the shift in personal terms. “I didn’t qualify to spend my life doing Excel spreadsheets. I qualified to be strategic, to tell the story behind the numbers. AI can take away the grunt work and provide insights that even the best teams would miss.”
One of the most pressing areas where CFOs are seeking solutions is intercompany accounting. Complex, high-volume processes create risks of double counting and write-offs that can directly hit the P&L.
“It is dangerous for CFOs and CAOs if they cannot trust their data,” Omer-Decugis warned. “Fortune 100 companies are particularly focused on this, and technology has a huge role to play.”
May agreed, noting that many of the world’s largest companies are already at a tipping point.
“Do they endlessly add headcount, or do they use tools like AI integrated into reliable platforms? Accountants are expensive resources. At some point you have to cap that and let technology do the work.”
While AI dominated their session, BlackLine is also betting on broader process automation. Its Studio solution is designed to streamline workflows so tasks are triggered by events, not calendar dates.
“Accountants are used to waiting until working day two or three to do payroll or reconciliations,” May said. “Why wait? As soon as the numbers land, the system can trigger the next step. That takes the pressure off month-end and frees time for analysis.”
Shared service centres are another focus. Many firms have invested heavily in offshoring to Central and Eastern Europe or Asia Pacific, but Omer-Decugis argues this is no longer enough.
“Putting more people in shared service centres won’t meet market expectations on productivity. You need technology alongside those centres to raise efficiency.”
Equally important is the partnership between CFOs and CIOs.
“The best CFOs I’ve spoken to have a clear understanding of architecture and digital transformation,” Omer-Decugis said. “They are directly involved in decisions about ERP migrations and integrations, because these have a huge impact on finance transformation.”
For both Omer-Decugis and May, the size of their audience in London reflected a simple truth: CFOs are ready to engage with AI, but only on their terms.
“They know the danger with AI is hallucination,” Omer-Decugis said. “But if you combine AI with trusted data, that is a perfect match.”
May added that the appeal was not just about technology but about restoring purpose to the finance role.
“Seventy percent of CFOs say they have concerns about the accuracy of the numbers they make decisions on. At the same time, 40 percent of accountants are looking for new roles because they want to be more strategic. If AI can take away the transactional burden and give them time back, that is a win for everyone.”
Trust, then, remains the watchword. For BlackLine, its bet is that in a finance function overwhelmed by complexity, it is not just automation that CFOs want — it is certainty.