Current and Future AI Use-Cases for Finance and Accounting

The rapid ascent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming it from a mere option to an important instrument for sustaining a competitive edge in today’s business landscape. Organizations across various sectors intend to begin using or expand investment in AI to optimize operations, augment decision-making, and fortify their market position. This article explores some current and future use cases for AI in finance, accounting, and operations, shedding light on how it is reshaping our world.

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Current Use Cases

Digital data transformation stands out as a powerful AI use case harnessed by business leaders. GenAI’s ability to process various document formats – from scanned copies and images to PDFs and Word documents – and convert them into machine-readable data. This not only eliminates significant manual efforts but also enables the reallocation of time into activities of greater strategic importance. Specific applications encompass:

1. Creating content searchable and reportable using GenAI tools
2. Identifying key terms, conditions, and key data points
3. Extracting and comparing data between multiple sources
4. Facilitating data-driven decisions and automated workflows
5. Utilizing large language models to assist in workflows and analysis

Illustrating this, GenAI can systematically read, digitize, and extract key terms and conditions from complex sales contracts and reconcile this data to other key systems. Additionally, it can auto-populate the contract review checklist and orchestrate the contract and checklist review process to support appropriate accounting for revenue under ASC606.

Furthermore, AI’s adeptness in handling vast amounts of data bolsters business insights and decision-making. Machine learning and AI models can analyze large and complex data sets, identify patterns in the data, and drive actions, which can greatly improve the identification of new opportunities and anticipate risks. These AI capabilities can deal with huge data sets from multiple sources to garner insights often missed by traditional analytics approaches. Here are some use cases:

1. Reconciling large data sets (especially transactions)
2. Detecting data anomalies and inconsistencies
3. Profiling customers to identify risks (e.g., churn) and opportunities (e.g., upsell)

As an example, we have trained a supervised machine learning algorithm to predict customer cancellations, enabling proactive strategies that can result in reduced churn and increased annual recurring revenue.

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AI’s Future Horizons

Looking ahead, we envisage AI dramatically transforming processes, data collection, analysis, compliance, and financial reporting. We expect AI will allow major advancements across a wide array of areas, including:

1. End-to-end Transaction Processing
2. Financial Close Automation
3. Application of Complex Accounting to Transactions
4. Financial Planning & Modeling
5. Compliance & Controls
6. Financial / Public Reporting
7. Full User Self Service
8. Analytics & Decision Making

To illustrate this, here are two possible examples where we see AI playing a major role:

• Business leaders, including the CFO are now confronted with vast amounts of internal and external data points upon which to make crucial decisions. We envision that in the coming years, companies will effectively organize their data (across functions and business units) and add powerful AI capabilities, allowing business leaders to get what they need when they need it and in the format they prefer using a simple chat interface. Furthermore, AI technology will proactively monitor data, provide insights, and suggest actions.
• Compliance processes and activities, although important to an organization and its stakeholders, can be very taxing on an organization’s resources. We envision a world, where AI not only facilitates the execution of critical compliance and control activities but also plays a role in monitoring and validating that key controls operate as expected. With AI, we believe that the concept of continuous monitoring and auditing may be an attainable goal for many organizations.

Despite the inherent uncertainty in predicting the exact trajectory of technological advancement and evolution, we anticipate progress via significant milestones and breakthroughs rather than overnight advancement or a singular, massive leap. As a result, adaptability remains key, especially given that these advancements could surpass our expectations. Additionally, although we expect significant advances, we expect most will continue to require a human co-pilot to execute, especially complex judgments and decisions effectively. There is an undeniable revolution happening right now when it comes to AI, and we expect companies that commence now will benefit from the valuable use cases of today and be the first to unlock the competitive advantages of future use cases.

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Engage with Connor Group for Practical AI Solutions

In an era where AI is redefining the future of all industries and functions, and the speed of adoption is both a challenge and an opportunity, the importance of a strategic partner cannot be understated. Connor Group, with its proven track record in guiding leaders through transformative shifts, stands as your trusted ally. Our deep understanding of both finance and technology ensures that you're not only adapting to the AI revolution but truly leveraging it for organizational excellence.

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Authors

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Jason Pikoos

Managing Partner

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Tim Brandt

Partner

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Erik Olson

Director