Generative AI can be showing promise in functions like treasury, with use cases including money, revenue, and liquidity forecasting and management, in addition to automating contracts and investment evaluation. Nevertheless, challenges still remain for generative AI to contribute to forecasting on account of the mathematical limitations of LLMs. Regardless, Deloitte’s evaluation of its 2024 State of Generative AI within the Enterprise survey found that one-fifth (19%) of finance organizations have already adopted generative AI within the finance function.
Despite return on generative AI investments in finance functions being 8 points below expectations up to now for surveyed organizations (see Figure 1), some finance departments look like moving ahead with investments. Deloitte’s fourth-quarter 2024 North American CFO Signals survey found that 46% of CFOs who responded expect deployment or spend on generative AI in finance to extend in the following 12 months (see Figure 2). Respondents cite the technology’s potential to assist control costs through self-service and automation and liberate staff for higher-level, higher-productivity tasks as a number of the top advantages of the technology.
“Corporations have used AI on the customer-facing side of the home for a very long time, but in finance, employees are still creating documents and presentations and emailing them around,” says Robyn Peters, principal in finance transformation at Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Largely, the human-centric experience that customers expect from brands in retail, transportation, and hospitality haven’t been pulled through to the finance organization. And there’s no reason we cannot try this—and, the truth is, AI makes it loads easier to do.”
If CFOs think they’ll just sit by for the following five years and watch how AI evolves, they could lose out to more nimble competitors which might be actively experimenting within the space. Future finance professionals are growing up using generative AI tools too. CFOs should consider reimagining what it looks wish to be a successful finance skilled, in collaboration with AI.
