Making AI a Performance Tool: the Role of the CFO

AI is changing organizations at every level. Its integration must be part of a strategic approach that enables you to achieve your goals.

While managers are aware of the importance of having their teams adopt artificial intelligence (AI), it’s evolving so rapidly that many are struggling to keep pace strategically.

However, now more than ever, we must not improvise, but rather embark on a carefully thought-out process that aligns with our organization’s objectives. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has a crucial role in leading their team to the chosen destination. AI must be part of a comprehensive strategic vision and structured around clear objectives, technological and organizational roadmaps and robust governance.

The results of our study entitled “A Finance Team in Full Transformation: Challenges and Skills for 2030” reveal a significant gap between the importance attached to AI and the teams’ actual adoption maturity. Indeed, 78% of leaders consider that integrating AI in finance is important, while only 53% believe that their teams are ready to adopt it. This gap reflects the current situation where technology is evolving faster than the adoption capacity of organizations.

In this context, how can your company generate full value from AI and where should you begin?

Understanding the technological tools

AI has been rolled out at breakneck speed. The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 was an important turning point. Ever since, a wide range of tools and systems have appeared and transformed our professional practices. However, this speed has created a two-pronged challenge:

• Pressure to adopt AI;
• Legitimate human and ethical concerns and the fear of being overtaken or replaced in particular.

For CFOs, this means that they must juggle technological leadership and employee fears related to AI transformation.

The first step involves getting to know the technological opportunities available to you and analyzing them to select the options that best meet your organization’s actual needs.

You can have multiple objectives. For example:

• Increasing productivity;
• Diversifying markets;
• Enhancing the value of your products and services.

Making your projects a reality

In order to generate full value from AI, you must ask yourself the right questions before developing a plan.

• Which challenges is the organization facing?
• How could integrating AI help us?
• What are the different uses and how important are they?

The CFO must ensure that the strategic plan is implemented in stages by taking the following steps:

• Integrating the selected technology into the systems;
• Integrating the databases;
• Automating certain transactional processes;
• Developing business intelligence through predictive analyses.

To achieve this, you will need:

• reliable data;
• disciplined governance;
• a link between your strategic vision and concrete actions;
• to set targets for mobilizing your organization;
• to carry out ongoing performance monitoring and make adjustments as required;
• to ground decisions in continuous improvement and sustainable transformation.

Rallying all stakeholders, balancing investments and increasing your capacity with regard to internal resources is important.

From the beginning of the process, you can enlist the help of external experts, but you should eventually be able to count on competent internal teams to ensure activities run smoothly.

Evolving toward hybrid teams: humans and virtual agents

Our study highlights the increase in hybrid teams made up of humans and virtual agents designed to complete specific tasks. CFOs must learn to navigate these new environments and orchestrate a large number of agents working together and support operational teams.

This dynamic requires:

• Renewed leadership;
• Enhanced strategic and human skills;
• A culture of ongoing innovation.

AI as a driver of organizational transformation

In order to maximize the value of AI, organizations must go beyond simply adopting technology and rethink their business models, processes, roles and management methods. This transformation must be based on integrated performance management, an essential mechanism for aligning the strategic vision and operational execution and ongoing performance tracking.

The CFO’s role is important since they can quantify the benefits, and provide a framework for an in-depth transformational change within the organization and ensure its success.