The BIP.Monticello team recently attended Gartner’s Move Towards an AI-Forward, Autonomous Finance Future webinar. This webinar emphasized the importance of different kinds of change that are required for an organization to adopt AI practices in an applicable and sustainable way. These changes are necessary for organizations, as greater data complexity is starting to exponentially outpace data volume growth—even though Excel is the tool most often used to manage this data. As much as data is an asset, it is also a liability that needs to be managed effectively.
Gartner presented their AI-Forward Framework for taking the next steps towards a strong autonomous finance future: 1.) Skills, 2.) Software & Data, 3.) Organization, 4.) Culture, and 5.) AI Strategy & Process. These five characteristics of the AI-Forward Framework are presented in a circular loop diagram, as each characteristic must continue to be developed to successfully maintain AI progress within an organization. For organizations that are especially new to Adopting AI, the presenter recommended starting with the Skills and Software & Data parts of the framework. For the “Skills” portion, it is important to hire and continuously train employees. It is not as important for these people to be professional data scientists as it is for them to think like them and be able to work comfortably with data. For the “Software & Data” portion, it is good to buy new software when possible; it is crucial to circumvent the need for internal development when the same solutions have already been built elsewhere. Additionally, investing in data pipelines leads to users accessing data more easily and concentrating instead on solving problems. Following this framework allows people and machines to each use their strengths to find solutions to the complex problems that businesses face every day.
The number of use cases for AI in the financial services industry is enormous, and there are straightforward ways for AI to have useful applications in your business. One of the best introductions to AI is software that can help identify and explain errors—much like what accountants and auditors use. AI can also be very helpful with financial forecasting because of the strength machine learning has at making predictions. Additional reconciliation, planning, management, and monitoring functionalities can also be explored.
At BIP.Monticello, we embrace continuous learning about evolving technologies in the Digital Financial Transformation space and working with our clients on individualized solutions to help their businesses and stakeholders.