Gartner: 60% of Finance Teams now use AI

AI adoption by finance teams has increased dramatically in the past year with 58% using the technology in 2024 - a 21 percentage-point increase over last year, according to Gartner.

While 42% of finance team members are not currently using AI, half of these are still planning to use it.

By 2026, 90% of finance teams will deploy at least one AI-enabled technology solution.

The good news is that, despite fears of AI replacing humans, less than 10% of finance functions will see headcount reductions, according to Gartner.

Ash Mehta, senior director analyst in Gartner Finance, said: “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.”

CFOs have grown more bullish about the potential business value of AI after earlier scepticism, according to Gartner.

Sixty-six percent of the Gartner survey respondents said they were more optimistic about the technology compared with last year.

Most finance leaders said they were furthest along in using AI when it comes to process automation and anomaly and error detection, Gartner found.

Gartner surveyed 121 finance leaders in June 2024 to understand their use of AI technologies.

Last year, departments such as HR, legal and procurement were twice as likely to be using or scaling out AI solutions compared to finance. This year, the gap is almost non-existent.

Marco Steecker, senior research director in Gartner Finance, said: “AI adoption in the finance function is advancing quickly. 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.”

Opportunities vs challenges

AI is now widely viewed across business as a top growth enabler, with nearly half of companies (46%) ranking it as such, according to a survey published last week by KPMG.

Respondents indicated they were more likely to see significant opportunities (72%) rather than challenges (58%) when it comes to AI adoption over the medium-term.

Tech vendors weighing in

Tech vendors big and small have been rolling out AI-enabled software tools rapidly, with many of them aimed specifically at the CFO.

In February, Microsoft unveiled Copilot for Finance, a virtual assistant in Microsoft 365 applications designed to make financial processes more streamlined and automated.

What CFOs are using AI for

Gartner has identified four main use cases for finance teams adopting AI:

Intelligent process automation (44%)

Automation that leverages the AI capabilities of existing automation tools (such as RPA) to enhance information processing

Anomaly and error detection (39%)

AI-enabled identification and reporting of errors and outliers in large datasets (e.g., internal claims, expenses, and invoices)

Analytics (28%)

Creating better financial forecasts and results analysis that can lead to improved decision making

Operational assistance and augmentation (27%)

Emulation of human-judgement-based decisions in operations through AI (often generative AI)

Using AI to spot deepfakes

The fact that AI is being used by finance teams to detect anomalies and errors can only be a good thing. 

More than half (53%) of senior finance executives surveyed by software provider Medius said they had experienced deepfake scamming attacks, with 43% admitting they’d fallen victim to scammers.

In fact, 87% of those surveyed admitted they would make a payment if they were “called” by their CEO or CFO to do so.

Overall, one third (33%) of finance team members said they didn’t feel well enough educated to tackle deepfakes. But there was a large difference geographically – in the US, nearly half of finance functions said they knew what to do, compared with just 12% in the UK.

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