AI-Driven Finance, Quantified

AI is revolutionizing finance, with a majority of financial decision-makers (80%) believing it will boost office productivity. According to a global survey by OneStream, a leader in corporate performance management, AI is poised to become a critical component in finance and accounting processes over the next five years (https://lnkd.in/eYEYyZA5).

Most finance leaders are exploring AI to enhance data management, specifically data correction (69%), cleansing (60%), mapping (59%), and anomaly detection (53%). AI is also driving faster insights and improving forecasting accuracy, with 60% of decision-makers finding AI technologies more actionable. 73% of respondents assert AI has improved their ability to predict and manage risk. Additionally, AI's benefits have resulted in cost savings for one-third of the respondents. 43% of the respondents say AI-powered forecasts are expected to be updated in real-time, with 31% expecting daily updates.

While the outlook on AI is generally positive, organizations face challenges, including employee training (32%) and data privacy regulations (31%). Another 28% cite data breaches and cybersecurity, and integrating AI with existing processes as hurdles. To overcome these challenges, 43% of surveyed businesses are improving data security. Another 43% have implemented or are considering implementing new software applications. While 46% of respondents see AI as a threat to current job roles in finance, 72% believe AI will create new opportunities. AI is expected to increase productivity and efficiency in finance departments, improving employee outputs, data insights, and output quality (48%).

With labor shortages causing many organizations to be understaffed, AI can help increase productivity, enhance decision-making, and elevate the skill sets of accounting and finance teams. Over one-third of respondents say AI gives employees more time to focus on innovative tasks like creating new products (36%). It also saves money that would have been spent on compliance and regulatory reporting (37%).

37% of employers find AI is increasing employee satisfaction and retention. More than half of businesses provide internal AI training sessions (58%) or are developing a training program (57%). Over the next five years, financial decision-makers believe AI technologies (55%) and generative AI (66%) will become core components of financial processes. One-third believe their teams will start using AI technologies (37%) and generative AI (29%) more often.

While financial leaders still have much to figure out about AI, particularly privacy and regulatory issues due to the sensitive nature of financial data, the future outlook of AI for finance professionals looks promising.