The Future of Finance: How CFOs & CIOs Can Leverage AI

New technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and low-code development platforms are transforming finance and operations globally. As a CFO or CIO, you have an immense opportunity to lead your company into the digital future. By adopting AI-powered accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, you can automate routine tasks, gain strategic insights, and help improve productivity, visibility, and collaboration. Platforms like Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, and NetSuite now incorporate advanced AI to streamline essential functions like general ledger, accounts payable/receivable, and billing. This functionality can help your team reduce manual data entry and reconciliations so they can focus on more strategic initiatives.

With AI-enabled technology, you can work smarter, faster, and more accurately. Read on to learn how today’s CFOs and CIOs are gearing up for the future of finance and leveraging AI to transform finance and accounting functions.

Making Smarter, More Agile Decisions

AI-powered analytics provide real-time visibility into financial performance. By analyzing data from across your business, AI can help you identify issues, opportunities, and trends so you can make data-driven decisions quickly. Low-code platforms, like the Microsoft Power Platform, can help you quickly build role-based dashboards that deliver AI insights to stakeholders across your organization.

Decreasing Costs While Improving Efficiency

Low-code platforms don’t require extensive coding expertise. This can enable your team to fast-track the development of new business applications with minimal IT support. Low-code tools also can streamline the integration between existing finance and operations systems, increasing workflow efficiency.

Prioritizing Security, Governance, & Compliance

AI adds a new layer of financial oversight, continuously monitoring for risks, anomalies, and fraud. AI tools can provide audit trails, access controls, and change management approvals to support compliance. Cloud-based ERP technologies—like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Finance, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite—also centralize data while providing backups and disaster recovery.

Improving Key Finance & Operations Workflows

Generative AI can automate routine finance tasks like reporting, freeing up your team for more strategic work. AI can review historical data, identify patterns, and generate new content like forecasts and financial statements.

Other examples of processes that can be automated show up in many business areas, including supply chain and logistics, human resources, sales and marketing, customer service, and business analytics. Tasks well suited for automation often have these characteristics:

High volume
Repetitive
Time sensitive
Involve manual data entry, unstructured data, multiple people, or compliance
Require audit trails

Leading in the Digital Future of Finance

Manual processes can fall behind today’s rapid rate of change. AI and low-code tools can help your finance and operations teams:

Automate repetitive manual tasks
Reduce errors through increased consistency and audit-readiness
Create role-based dashboards that provide real-time visibility
Integrate systems to help break down data silos
Streamline compliance with financial regulations
Enable predictive planning with sophisticated forecasting

You can reduce costs while increasing strategic bandwidth by embracing AI and low-code tools. Automate mundane tasks so your team can focus on high-value initiatives. Become a digital leader and help your organization be equipped with the latest technology to succeed now and into the future.

How FORVIS Can Help

Today, many ERP and accounting solutions provide AI capabilities. Sage Intacct offers advanced AI capabilities that can automate and simplify financial processes. It can deploy machine learning to automate accounting tasks like reconciliations, allocations, and consolidations. Other AI features allow you to configure automated actions like sending reminders, updating records, or creating transactions.

Microsoft also provides powerful low- and no-code tools like Power Apps along with Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance to improve finance workflows with AI. Power Apps can help quickly and easily build custom AI-enabled apps to streamline repetitive tasks such as reporting or data entry. Dynamics 365 Business Central delivers an intelligent accounting and operations platform tailored for midmarket companies. It uses AI to streamline workflows like cash flow management and financial close. Similarly, Dynamics 365 Finance leverages AI to automate routine finance tasks, provide intelligent reconciliation and forecasting, generate data-driven insights, and more.

In addition, NetSuite offers powerful AI capabilities to simplify workflows. Its forecasting tool can leverage predictive modeling to generate financial forecasts in real time based on historical data and trends. NetSuite tools also can use machine learning to automatically detect unusual transactions and variances. These and other AI tools from NetSuite can help automate routine tasks, streamline compliance, and generate strategic insights.

Each of these technologies can help CFOs and CIOs prepare for the future of finance and leverage AI to transform finance and accounting functions.

Business Technology Solutions at FORVIS has premier technology provider partnerships with Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, NetSuite, and more. We can help you assess which solution(s) best meet your business needs. Connect with us today to learn more or request a personalized demo.