Companies whose finance departments use Artificial Intelligence (AI) perform significantly better than their competitors who do not have the technology. This is evident from the global study ‘Finance, AI and the future of decision-making’ conducted by IT consultancy Unit4. Almost half of companies with AI (47%) believe they are performing well, compared to only 28% of companies without the ‘technology’.

The study, conducted by Unit4 – a provider of enterprise cloud applications for human-centric organizations – surveyed 1,760 decision-makers in finance departments in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom. Respondents came from mid-sized companies with between 100 and 9,999 employees.

“AI is of great interest to finance departments around the world, as early adopters believe it can have a positive impact on their organisation’s performance,” explains Unit4 CFO Gorden Stuart. “However, AI should not be seen as just a way to automate processes.”

“This can help finance professionals take on a more strategic role, interpreting data through technological analytics and translating findings into meaningful insights that are relevant to their organization. In this way, they can help shape the direction of finance.”

Further training in AI

The study also shows that 62% of Dutch finance professionals expect to be more involved in strategy and decision-making. 60% of them believe their day-to-day tasks will change significantly over the same period.

While many respondents have a positive outlook on AI, not everyone is ready for the role to change. 82% indicated they want to significantly improve their ‘finance skills’ in the next twelve months. Nearly three in four finance professionals plan to continue training in AI, machine learning, coding, data analytics and data science in the coming year.

Financial experts indicated that reducing human error (32%) and saving time (36%) were seen as the most important benefits of AI. Finally, 22% of respondents said AI will help colleagues make faster choices and 26% believe AI will provide actionable insights in decision-making.

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