News built for finance pros
CFO Brew helps finance pros navigate their roles with insights into risk management, compliance, and strategy through our newsletter, virtual events, and digital guides.
We know. You’re secretly ready for this scorching summer to be over. The long days were nice and all, but they were also HOT, and now it’s time to put on some tweed and consume pumpkin everything like the grownup you are.
Amid the changing seasons, we know the absolute last thing on your mind is yet another dispatch about AI implementation in finance, but please, give us this one. You’re a savvy financial pro who needs to keep abreast with industry trends! It’s time to eat your vegetables.
While there’s been a slight slowdown in AI enthusiasm in recent months—in August, research and advisory firm Gartner said finance leaders need to temper their generative AI expectations—the same firm is out with two new reports that highlight some promising AI adoption figures across finance functions.
Finance is no longer a laggard: Last year, when Gartner conducted a survey of finance leaders’ AI adoption, Marco Steecker, senior director of research in the company’s finance practice, noted that “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.”
That gap is now “almost nonexistent,” Steecker noted in a statement.
AI adoption in finance functions has increased to 58% in 2024, Gartner found in a survey of 121 finance leaders it conducted in June. That’s a 21 percentage point climb from 2023, the firm noted. And half of the finance functions that aren’t using AI plan to implement it, the survey showed.
“It’s also encouraging to note that two-thirds of finance leaders feel more optimistic about AI’s impact than they did a year ago, particularly among those who have already made progress leveraging AI solutions,” Steecker added.
And there’s more on the horizon. In another new report out this week, Gartner predicted that 90% of finance functions will use “at least one AI-enabled technology solution” by 2026. The good news alongside that: The firm expects that under 10% of functions will reduce headcount.
“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, a senior director analyst in Gartner’s finance practice, said in a statement. “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.”
See, was that so hard? Don’t you feel just slightly more informed? Vegetables taste good sometimes.