More organizations are turning to AI in the finance function

Adoption of finance AI — artificial intelligence that aids in the finance function — is on the rise.

A recent Gartner survey of 121 finance leaders found that 58% of organizations are using finance AI in 2024, up from 37% in a similar survey a year ago.

“In this survey last year, other administrative functions (such as HR, legal, and procurement) were twice as likely to be using or scaling out AI solutions compared to the finance function,” Marco Steecker, senior director, research in the Gartner Finance practice, said in a news release. “This year the gap is almost nonexistent.”

Organizations are implementing finance AI in the following processes:

• Intelligent process automation (used by 44% of finance functions);
• Anomaly and error detection (39%); and
• Analytics (28%).

Twenty-seven percent of finance leaders reported using AI for operational assistance and augmentation, defined by Gartner as “emulation of human-judgment-based decisions in operations through AI (often generative AI).”

A Capgemini report found that among organizations it labeled as “data masters,” more than 7 in 10 are actively upskilling the workforce for the use of generative AI. The research found that “data masters” reported a 39% higher net income margin than the whole of the 500 companies covered by the survey.

Both reports found the development of sufficient staff with adequate technical skills to be a notable challenge facing organizations.

“Because interest in AI is rising across the board both inside and outside their organizations, CFOs are finding it tough to source the talent they need to meet their AI ambitions, and this problem is likely to get worse,” Steecker said. “It’s therefore essential they have an overarching functional strategy to identify, acquire, and develop AI skills.”

Gartner experts predict that 90% of organizations will use some form of finance AI by 2026 but that less than 10% will have headcount reductions as a result.

“Despite AI’s ability to emulate human performance, algorithms cannot match the unique capabilities of people in areas that require creativity and complex problem-solving,” Ash Mehta, senior director analyst in the Gartner Finance practice, said in a news release. “By recognizing the respective strengths of people and machines, finance leaders can build processes that boost the abilities of people and machines, while mitigating their weaknesses. This requires a new kind of collaboration between people and machines that will improve business performance and employee satisfaction.”

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Bryan Strickland at Bryan.Strickland@aicpa-cima.com.