A difference maker in health care.
The data analysis and business services firm Grant Thornton has updated its quarterly CEO outlook with 58% of corporate financial officers saying they’ll upgrade their IT/technology spending over the next year.
There’s a special emphasis on boosting AI spending in the next year, Grant Thornton reports in its 3rd Quarter CFO Outlook.
In the past four months, AI use has grown significantly at U.S. companies, the report states.
In (that period), the percentage of CFOs who said their organizations are using generative AI grew to 43% from 30% the previous quarter,” Grant Thornton notes. “Meanwhile, 45% of respondents said they’re exploring potential use cases for generative AI. This means 88% of CFOs either are already using the technology or are trying to figure out how to use it. In fact, more than half (57%) of CFOs said their organizations have formal training in place on the use of generative AI, up from 49% in Q2.”
If anything, AI implementations are almost happening too quickly, although CFOs seem to have a good grip on how they want to use the technology.
“AI’s popularity is growing and growing quickly,” said national managing principal of Grant Thornton’s CFO Advisory Paul Melville. “Now that CFOs are more comfortable with the supply chain and workforce issues, they’re looking at how they can drive the business. And they’re focusing on technology upgrades to deliver that ROI.”
A Shot In the Arm for Health Care
One sector where CFOs see AI paying off handsomely is health care.
“Look at the healthcare industry,” said Chris Lilley, principal, technology transformation for Grant Thornton “Every single device in a patient’s room is connected to their systems. So you have to be spending on technology to stay competitive with everybody else in the world. And the flip side is, you’re getting a tremendous return.”
Recently, Grant Thornton helped a healthcare company’s finance team install AI-based systems technology that included optical character recognition technology.
The health care provider found that vendors were getting paid more quickly and customer service questions were resolved faster. Simultaneously, finance department staffers found that leaning on AI to handle traditional accounting and payment tasks gave them more time to work on more “value-added” strategic projects.
“We were basically able to reduce the workload in that department by about 60% to 80%,” Lilley notes. “This was all done by enabling new technology on top of some older systems.”
Grant Thornton also says client companies are seeing “more timely” data decisions being made by AI data analysis tools, machine learning systems, and robotics process automation. Not only are those tech tools getting information out faster, but the process and outcomes are more efficient, CFOs say.
“This type of technology will enable better reporting for more informed strategic decisions while helping finance team members spend more time interpreting data and less time on manual number crunching,” Melville adds.
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.
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