This illustrated photo taken on October 30, 2023 in Krakow, Poland, shows the Copilot logo displayed on a laptop screen and the Microsoft logo displayed on a phone screen.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurfoto | Getty Images
Optimism about the transformative opportunities of generative artificial intelligence continues to grow. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently announced a new generation of his AI chips and new deals to leverage his AI beyond tech with Johnson & Johnson and his GE Healthcare Afterward, he told CNBC's Jim Cramer: We are still at the beginning of computing acceleration. It will last several years. ”
Companies across industries are using generative AI to improve employee productivity, new communication tools for customers and employees, and reduce friction across operations. I'm trying to find a way to do it.
While other executives have jumped on the generative AI train, many traditionally risk-loving CFOs are doing so, in some cases out of concerns about return on investment or a desire to keep overall costs low. I'm hesitating.
As investment in AI broadly increases, just one-third of respondents in a Q1 2024 CNBC CFO Council survey expect their company's capital spending to increase over the next 12 months. I answered. Even among that group, only 7% said increased capital spending would be used to invest in new AI capabilities, the same as investments in non-AI technologies and lower ranks, and expand into new markets. , used in the construction of new factories and other facilities, and in the formulation of strategic strategies. Get.
However, a new set of tools for CFOs and finance teams are being rolled out by business software providers, and there are some examples of these tools being used successfully in the real world.
Cory Huncilik, head of modern finance in Microsoft's CFO office, said teams at tech companies are reducing the amount of time they spend reconciling, in some cases from several hours per week per person to about 10 to 20 minutes per person. said that it was done. Variance analysis has also become a big focus, with “thousands of people here spending a lot of time trying to figure out what's going on, and now they can do it super fast.” “We can do that,” he said.
Last month, Microsoft released the Copilot chatbot for finance professionals. This allows you to perform variance analysis, reconcile data in Excel, speed up the collection process in Outlook, and more. Many other business software providers are looking to quickly deploy tools that leverage generative AI or update existing tools with generative AI. Some companies are creating their own tools or leveraging tools from companies like OpenAI to build theirs.
Leveraging AI more broadly is nothing new for CFOs, with tools like predictive AI being used by most companies to assist with core tasks.
Salesforce CFO Amy Weaver said predictive AI has been used for “a decade to predict spending, flag quotes with unusual terms for review, and predict the likelihood that a customer will pay on time.” It has been used in the finance department for some time, he said.
But this new wave of generative AI presents other opportunities, and Weaver said interest in generative AI across the industry has increased at a furious pace over the last year. “Every company is thinking about her AI strategy,” she said.
Salesforce's finance team recently participated in a financial AI “moonshot” competition to come up with innovative ways to leverage generative AI. The result was a proposal to use AI to “improve processes such as quote analysis, tax credit processing, and flux analysis.” , and many more,” Weaver said.
Usage of existing AI tools within Salesforce, including tools that provide AI-driven insights and predictions about sales pipelines, increased 605% in three quarters, according to Weaver.
“I ask my team to think about the following questions: “How can we leverage this technology to be more productive and efficient every day?'' Who is time the most valuable resource? As we all know, leveraging new technology to free up time to focus on more high-value, impactful work should excite and motivate you. This increases the satisfaction level of all employees,” Weaver said.
Mark McDonald, a director analyst at Gartner who focuses on digital technology in finance, says organizations will look to deploy AI-driven tools that “serve the lowest common denominator of financial and accounting processes that exist in every enterprise.” He said that companies can immediately take advantage of the value. obtain. But when it comes to generative AI tools, he added, the challenge is creating auditable processes and visually inspecting processes to ensure the data and conclusions are correct.
Gina Gutzeit, senior managing director and leader of FTI Consulting's CFO solutions practice, said questions about AI frequently come up in conversations with CFOs. She has also seen companies face implementation uncertainty, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises, where there is a concern about a lack of good use cases. “How do we make it work? And once we put it in place, do we have the right skill set?” she said. “This is a continually maintained tool, and I think that's exactly where the hesitation is.”
Resistance to using these tools is a new problem, MacDonald said, as companies “start to implement technology that actually starts to overlap with what they've traditionally relied on humans to do, and what's ultimately going to happen is… The situation is one of resistance.
Salesforce strives to clearly understand the business objectives these tools serve, Weaver said, and that's key to implementation and value. “AI solutions can fail if they are not implemented or if model performance does not meet expectations. Taking the time to define the problem statement and goals will ensure that your AI investments are effective.” It helps a lot to do that. It was a success,” she said. “When you talk to a CFO, he says one thing is clear: Every CFO is trying to figure out the best way to increase the productivity of the business.”
Hrncirik said the message within Microsoft is that generative AI is “a new skill that we have to develop.”
“We tell our employees that they need to use Copilot to build intentional daily habits just like any other tool at their fingertips,” he said. “I didn't just learn how to use them by accident. I spent time learning how to use them and trying different things.”
Although the technology is still in its infancy, Hruncilik said he hopes CFOs will see the benefits. “All of these advances are really going to save us a lot of time and help free up some of the mundane tasks that people do that they don't want to do, so they can focus on other things.”
“We need to be a little clearer by saying this is just another tool in the toolbox for CFOs and finance departments, and it's not the beginning of the end of everything,” Guzeit said.