CashNews.co
The next generation of financial wizards is being trained not just in accounting and analysis, but in an entirely new skill set – harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to transform how the finance function operates.
At the vanguard of this shift are trailblazers like Aparna Iyer, the chief financial officer of global IT services giant Wipro, and Prashant Garg, technology consulting partner at professional services firm EY.
“We’ve been readying ourselves for this leap in technology that is generative AI,” says Aparna. Over the past two decades, finance teams have embraced process automation, machine learning, and predictive analytics. AI, she says, is the natural next step, augmenting those capabilities to boost productivity, enhance risk management and drive faster, more insightful decision-making.
From streamlining routine tasks like invoice processing to empowering finance professionals to become more strategic business partners, generative AI presents transformative opportunities. “My ability to read financial content in natural language becomes easier,” notes Prashant. “I can audit contracts, leases – documents that are hundreds of pages long – and find exactly what I’m looking for much more efficiently,” he says.
At Wipro, early proofs-of-concept have yielded promising results across areas like accounting, auditing, and reporting. The company’s custom AI platform, AI 360, acts as a knowledgeable digital assistant, summarising earnings, identifying risks, and generating the first drafts of disclosures by analysing past filings. All outputs, however, go through rigorous human checks before being finalised.
“We are very wary of tools and platforms that are not built in house,” cautions Aparna. “There are security concerns around data privacy and IP infringement.”
For EY’s clients across sectors, Prashant’s teams are designing AI-powered workflows that streamline audits from planning to reporting. By learning from hundreds of past audits, the generative AI system can recommend robust audit plans, continuously monitor processes, and flag anomalies with greater speed and accuracy than humans alone.
“It’s like having a new team member who can assimilate knowledge from everyone’s experiences,” says Prashant. “A fresh auditor can rapidly get up to speed by learning from decades of institutional expertise that would otherwise take years to accumulate manually.”
One of the most significant advantages of GenAI, Prashant says, is its ability to handle both structured and unstructured data with ease. Whether dealing with invoices, contracts, or financial statements, GenAI can process and analyse vast amounts of data quickly, providing insights that would take human analysts much longer to generate. “Generative AI is a very good copilot,” Prashant says, adding that while it’s currently best suited as an assistant to human workers, the future may see AI taking on more autonomous roles.
Prashant also stresses the need for well-designed workflows to fully leverage the power of generative AI. “What someone like me as a consultant has to do is to ensure that the pipeline or the workflow for getting things done is designed well,” he explains.
Upskill to stay relevant
As AI capabilities advance, the mundane tasks of data entry, reconciliation and report generation are being automated, allowing teams to focus on higher-value activities like analysis, strategy and business partnering. This has immediate implications for the workforce in this sector.
“Young professionals joining today almost need to start as managers rather than workers,” says Prashant. “They must be ready to utilise AI tools to perform value-added tasks from day one, rather than spending years learning the ropes through routine processes.”
As finance departments globally begin to adopt these new technologies aggressively, both experts foresee a shift in the skills required of finance professionals. Being proficient in Excel, long considered a crucial skill for those in finance, is no longer enough, says Aparna.
Wipro is revamping its training curriculum to prepare the next generation. “We help them bridge the gap between academics and this new AI-powered world through data literacy courses, technology fundamentals like Python, and rotations across different finance roles,” Aparna says. More than just being data literate, Aparna says, the managers of finance professionals will look at how one interprets the data and produces insights. “I think what will be very important for finance professionals is the ability to think critically, have a high EQ, and have the ability to partner strategically more on the front of the business.”
Organisations too will have challenges – they will require mindset shifts, they will have to figure out how to integrate these AI systems with legacy systems, and they will have to be on top of evolving accountability frameworks. Yet, the potential upsides are too compelling to ignore.
“We may overestimate the shortterm impact but underestimate the long-term transformation AI can drive,” reflects Aparna. “Those who adopt it now and reimagine their future finance operating models will gain a crucial first-mover advantage.”