Why Should Finance Leaders Use AI for Improved Efficiency?

AI is becoming a major tool across business sectors, transforming how companies operate and improving efficiency for employees.

However in finance, a Spendesk report titled ‘The State of AI in Finance’ highlights that AI adoption in the sector has been slow - as finance leaders are still figuring out how to use these tools effectively and whether the ROI is worth making the move to AI.

As technology continues to develop and become more easily accessible and applicable, Spendesk finds that some finance leaders are proving AI can solve real challenges and unlock new opportunities.

Finance teams' adoption of AI tools has progressed in the past year, but the report shows that 61% of teams have still not implemented AI into their workflows.

However, 85% of Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) are optimistic about the potential efficiency gains that AI could bring to their teams.

But they also show hesitation. The most common objections found by the firm are the unclear benefits of using AI, the limited skills or training in existing teams and the amount of time it would take to overhaul current processes.

Axel Demazy, CEO of Spendesk, says: “Gen AI has accelerated access to AI; and when you look at how steep that acceleration is, you can tell the inflection point is far from being reached.

“We have only scratched the surface of how AI can augment human operations at scale in all our workflows, and we will see continued investment by businesses as a result.”

The report is the result of hundreds of conversations with CFOs across the CFO Connect community, a private network for finance leaders.

What’s holding finance leaders back?

A late 2024 CFO Connect survey found that most CFOs acknowledge the potential efficiency gains, but don’t know how and where to start.

When asked what was holding them back, the main concerns related to return on investment and team skills:

• Unclear benefits of AI (36%)
• Limited skills or training (32%)
• Time constraints (14%)
• Data privacy or security concerns (12%)
• Lack of leadership support (5%)

Spendesk’s research shows that many finance leaders still see AI as a fun tool that can help do everyday tasks like emails or provide answers to simple questions, or for other teams like marketing and sales.

CFOs also believe their teams don’t have the skills to adapt to new AI tools, but Finup360’s Founder Anne-Claire Chanvin says we’ve seen the shift before: “This shift is as big as when Excel was introduced in the 80s. It completely transformed how they worked, and today AI is bringing the same kind of change.”

Opportunities for AI in finance

AI excels at handling tasks that are rule-based, repetitive and time-consuming for humans, freeing up finance professionals to focus on higher-value activities that require human judgement.

Sarah Fu, Founder and Managing Partner of Elsa Capital, says: “Finance teams all do these very repetitive things: creating the same slide desk, do a weekly, biweekly, monthly refresh, or rebuilding models. 

“With LLMs, there’s the opportunity to do those repetitive things a lot better.”

Bogdan Năforniţă, CEO and Co-Founder of Profluo and previous CFO at BMW, says: “We keep seeing demotivated junior staff stuck doing basic work. No wonder there’s such high turnover in finance teams.”

Reporting is another repetitive task that can be greatly enhanced with AI and Anne-Claire says “it was a task that previously took one day per accountant, per country. Using the script [referring to a ChatGPT script], it only took five minutes.”

Finance teams also complete lots of emails, letters and other communications, and AI can be used to review these alongside presentations and reports to ensure consistency in meeting industry standards.

Paul Jun, former VP of Corporate Finance and Strategy at DropBox, says: “If you feed an AI tool the ASC 606 memo that your auditors use and a revenue contract, it can go through it and see if you’ve written your ASC 606 memo consistently with the handbook and consistently with your model customer contract.

“It’s almost like an internal audit function, to do a second check through some of the accounting procedures and memorandums you may have.”

The Spendesk report highlights the waiting potential of AI in finance, simplifying reporting and data analysis, invoices and expenses and document reviews.