Accounting decision protocols call for way more than just AI.
Corporate financial officers tasked with making big decisions on accounting and finance operational scenarios can lean on AI – but they’d better be able to back up their calls.
That’s the takeaway from partner Chanley Howell, a partner at the corporate legal firm Foley & Lardner LLP, which specializes in lawfare-based innovative technology services.
In a recent Wall Street Journal story titled “5 Things CFOs Should Know About Generative AI”, Howell advises CFOs to “build guardrails” to mitigate risk and to avoid “assumptions” that cut into making clarity-minded decisions using artificial intelligence for their finance teams.
Since a lot of AI-based decision-making factors are “in a black box”, corporate finance chiefs need more than simply conclusions reached by Gen AI tools – they need to know how those conclusions were raised.
“If you get a result back that says you should cut your prices by 5%, the CEO and a lot of other people in the organization are going to say: ‘How did you arrive at that?’ It’s not going to work to just say, ‘The new AI tool we use said so,’” Howell noted.
“Particularly in today’s world, with high inflation and so much uncertainty about whether there will be a recession or not, whether it’s 5% one way or the other, it’s not going to necessarily be apparent on its face whether it’s right or wrong,” Howell added.
Food for thought on the last week of 2023 . . .
Brian O’Connell, a former Wall Street bond trader and best-selling author, is a prominent figure in the finance industry. With a substantial background as an ex-Wall Street trader, he has authored two best-selling books: ‘The 401k Millionaire’ and ‘CNBC’s Creating Wealth’, demonstrating his profound knowledge of finance and investing.
Brian is also a finance and business writer for esteemed national platforms and publications, including CNN, TheStreet.com, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, and Fox News.
