AI floods finance

It happened. AI in finance is officially having its summer of 2023 Barbie moment. Or, to borrow from another recent blockbuster, it’s Everything Everywhere All at Once (quite literally).

100% of financial reporting leaders in the US (that’s everyone, folks) said they’ll either be piloting or implementing AI in the financial reporting process within the next three years, according to a new survey from KPMG, which spanned 1,800 companies across 10 markets, including 300 US respondents. That’s up from 71% currently, officially pushing AI into Taylor Swift-level ubiquity.

The situation is similar for generative AI: 97% of leaders said they’ll use it in the financial reporting process within three years, significantly up from the 46% who said they use it today. According to the survey, "GenAI is the most prioritized technology among US financial reporting leaders", (but you already knew that).

Companies in the US are spending 10.1% of their IT budgets on AI right now, on average with the intention of increasing their AI budgets by an average of 16.9% next year and 24.6% in the next three years.

“The benefits of AI compound as companies organize their data, move to the cloud, and integrate AI across processes,” Thomas Mackenzie, KPMG’s US and global audit chief technology officer, said in a statement. “In that context, how companies invest over the next few years will shape competitive positioning and the role of finance functions in business strategy.”

Beyond budgets, financial reporting leaders also made clear their increased focus on auditor AI adoption. 83% of respondents said it was important for auditors to use AI in their analysis process, up from 61% last year.

“AI is fundamentally transforming the audit,” Scott Flynn, KPMG US vice chair, audit at KPMG, said. “We expect to deliver more real-time auditing with greater insights into anomalies and trends supported by deep evaluation of the control environment governing the use of AI in financial reporting.”