In a recent survey by Grant Thornton of nearly 400 senior finance executive, 25% now claim to be using artificial intelligence in their businesses, in comparison to last years result which came in at 7%. Is this what it appears to be, and if so, how and why has this happened, and at such a significant pace?

It implies that CFOs are moving beyond automating manual, transactional processes and are now looking to apply technologies to forward-looking, strategic, decision-support activities such as forecasting, planning and analysis to drive enhanced business value. Even though these changes and implementations represent significant change, we still want to use the term ‘transformation’ with caution…

Transformation is often used to describe technology improvements, exploiting the latest tools to drive improved productivity. Whilst all progress is important, these are not the metamorphoses that the word ‘transformation’ describes. The growing evidence is that changing business models and outcomes are at the core of true transformation.

Think about the ‘sharing’ economy driven by Netflix, Uber, AirBnB and many others. The way in which these businesses view the consumer and their economic customer (not necessarily the same thing) represents a massive shift in business thinking and operation. Consumer convenience enabled by deep intimacy is driving even the oldest businesses to reconsider their models from classic Business to Business marketing and distribution, to a Business to Consumer (B2C) model. We have discussed this previously and termed it the “Uberization of business”.

If this topic, or the survey results are of further interest to you, reply to this email and we will send them your way.

Our ‘Something To Consider’ snippets are framed as small, digestible, ‘dashes of insight’ around the pillars of what we define as “World Class Finance” – Process Optimization, Financial Control and Compliance, and Risk Assurance, all underpinned by technology enablement and integration.