Corporate Financial Execs Are Using AI, But Carefully

A recent industry conference shines more light on AI uses in the finance department, with an emphasis on caution.

Chief financial officers are rolling out artificial intelligence applications in earnest in late 2023, with 42% of surveyed CFOs saying “their organizations are experimenting with GenAI,” according to a new study from Deloitte.

Companies are now using AI for everything from scenario planning to cash performance, with all the eagerness CFOs displayed when the first VisiCalc spreadsheet was introduced in 1979.

“We’re moving to a world with massive amounts of data, massive complexity of data, and data that is continuously changing, and that’s where AI comes in,” said Rohit Gupta, CEO of finance software company Auditoria.AI, speaking at a Workday technology event San Francisco on October 3rd.

Aside from scenario planning and cash analysis, corporate financial officers are using AI to aid finance teams in predicting customer behavior; handling tedious (but necessary) tasks like invoice processing, and reviewing transactional records, among other uses, Gupta said.

A Fine Line

While CFOs are immersing AI into everyday uses, they’re doing so with balance in mind – leveraging the speed, accuracy, and controls of artificial intelligence but keeping a sharp eye on short-term gains with long-term operational risks.

At a separate industry conference, FEI’s Corporate Reporting Insights conference held this week, PayPal’s chief accounting officer Hasitha Verma told the audience the digital payment giant is testing AI in a variety of company functions, such as compliance, customer service, and credit risk analysis.

Yet PayPal is using AI carefully, with a healthy dose of oversight on oversight.

“[Finance’s] beginning point is just to be skeptical and [ask] what are the controls necessary to realize it within our function, which, of course, [handles] lots of material nonpublic information,” Verma said, as reported by CFO Magazine.

For instance, the company’s new AI center of excellence has been tasked to monitor PayPal’s AI use, with written guidelines for team members to follow when using tools like Generative AI.

“One of the distinctions we’re making is using free public tools [like ChatGPT] versus subscription-based ones or vendor-provided services,” Verma noted. Additionally, company employees are urged not to upload critical (and private) company data when using the technology, with privacy risks in mind.

“Generative AI works by taking all the submitted data points and using them to generate some output. If you’re submitting confidential information, the AI tool may produce an output that substantially resembles one of those proprietary inputs,” Verma told the audience.

Like Verma, CFOs are excited about AI but are taking a measured approach to using the technology. That could be the mantra for corporate financial officers with AI in 2023 – trust, but verify.



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