Deliver more actionable data insights faster
When finance functions have AI tools to analyze large and diverse datasets, they can perform their analyses with greater speed and accuracy. They can also gain real-time insights into financial performance, market trends and economic indicators. The information they glean from their analyses can be crucial for surfacing opportunities for the business to reduce costs, increase efficiency and manage risks without undermining growth and innovation.
For example, with advanced AI capabilities, finance teams can identify inefficiencies in supply chain management and quickly pinpoint remedies such as consolidating suppliers or renegotiating contracts. And with generative AI capabilities, CFOs and their teams can create compelling narratives about financial data and the results of their analyses so stakeholders can absorb complex information more easily and move swiftly to apply those valuable insights for competitive advantage.
Create dynamic financial models that reflect current conditions
To navigate macroeconomic challenges with confidence, businesses must have the support of effective business planning and scenario modeling. However, traditional financial models can fall short when environments become volatile. That’s because they often rely on historical data and static assumptions.
AI-enabled finance functions have the advantage of using real-time data to adjust their financial models to better reflect what’s happening with current market conditions. They can also simulate economic scenarios to assess the potential impact of these situations on the business. For example, they can use AI to model how different interest rate levels, inflation rates and geopolitical events could potentially impact the cash flow, profitability and overall financial health of the company.
CFOs can, in turn, use this same information to help the business avoid or mitigate risk and develop more effective contingency plans. (The top use of AI for CFOs, according to the aforementioned Forbes survey, is risk management.) They can also use generative AI capabilities to distill complex data into visualizations and reports for the executive team, which can help to enhance decision-making as well as cross-functional collaboration.