89 Percent of Finance Teams Yet to Embrace Artificial Intelligence

Finance teams lack the digital skill set to embrace the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, causing a negative impact on revenue growth, according to a new study from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association) and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL). The study of more than 700 global finance leaders found that despite a clear correlation between the deployments of AI and revenue growth, 89 percent of organizations have not deployed AI in the finance function and only 10 percent of finance teams believe they have the skills to support the organization’s digital ambitions.

The report, titled “Agile Finance Unleashed: The Key Traits of Digital Finance Leaders” highlights that 46 percent of tech-savvy finance leaders report positive revenue growth, compared with only 29 percent of tech-challenged leaders. Furthermore, organizations that have seen revenue growth are more likely to be deploying artificial intelligence compared to those where revenues are flat or declining. However, only 11 percent of finance leaders surveyed have implemented artificial intelligence in the finance function, and 90 percent say their finance team does not have skills to support enterprise digital transformation.

“For me, robotic process automation, advanced analytics, and machine learning are three legs of the same stool,” said John Merino, chief accounting officer at FedEx. “The combination of those technologies and the ability to deliver them in an agile manner without long lead times and extensive interface complexities creates a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on some really big efficiency gains in virtually every staff function. The big win for us is to liberate that time and move finance up the value chain in what it delivers to the organization.”

“The cloud has significantly reduced the barrier to emerging technologies and is enabling organizations to introduce new business models and unique customer experiences that drive additional revenue streams,” says Kimberly Ellison-Taylor CPA, CGMA, global strategy leader, Cloud Business Group, Oracle and former chair of the Association and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). “Common benefits that our customers experience once in the cloud include reduced costs and improved efficiency, increased security, real-time and accurate reporting, deeper business insight and better decision-making. The confluence of benefits enables organizations to spend less time on low-value, time-intensive reporting and innovate faster than their competitors.”

The full report can be downloaded at http://www.oracle.com/goto/agilefinance.