This an awesome post. Something I've been hoping someone would write for a while now! Question I wanted to pose for you and the thread:
Given how close you are to the leading edge of adoption / use-cases I was curious to get your thoughts (and anyone else on on the thread) what your thoughts on how AI is changing the nature of the Finance, but specifically in the context of efficiency / automation vs. disruption/transformation:
To me there is a major difference as you go from efficiency / automation ("how" a job gets done) towards actual disruption and transformation ("What" the job is)
Using the taxi industry as an example: In many ways, Uber/Lyft didn't really change the nature of the job of taxi driving. It's more efficiency / automation around various aspects of the job. On the other hand, Waymo/Driverless cars would actually disrupt/transform the job of taxi drivers.
So when I look at the above Finance examples, right now, the change seems more in the nature of "Efficiency / Automation" (do more with less) vs. total transformation. **But can you see a path to a change more like Driverless Cars in the finance function? Do we ever get to a world where Finance can operate without Excel?**
(To be clear: this is not to say the above examples are not substantial improvements (they are), more that the nature of the change seems different than what I think about disruption / transformation. For example, Software Engineering: I'm not a software engineer, so I may be missing many aspects of the job, but when I see what's happening there with AI, there does seem to be more clearly a path to major changes of what that job is.)
Yeah, right now these examples fit very much in the efficiency bucket. But…I have talked to a few vendors who are reimagining how the work actually gets done. Some interesting stuff coming…
There is a quiet revolution going on in finance and accounting. Tools like alteryx, python (pandas, num py) with Jupyter notes are becoming the go to tool. Given the core expectation is to have “trusted” “auditable” source data, many are waiting for erps to provide gen ai tools. Small productivity improvements are already visible in the areas you called out. I also feel - accountants need to be trained … I see the west / east coast f&a folks to be savvy but not many. If you are looking for “value” and productivity improvements, there is maybe 2 years to see it. I wouldn’t be surprised if by 2028, data entry is fully automated using agentic ai. You should also look up this website ( an accountant who now has a lot of free tools on ai/ gen ai). Haven’t used it but see pretty neat - https://www.chipmunkrpa.com/finance-compliance.
If you are a Microsoft office / 365 user, try power automate. Your internal IT team should be able to get it done. Alternatively, if you upload 2/4 examples of recon on llm, ask it to be a treasury and bank recon and accounting export and to perform a bank reconciliation by uploading to your bank statement (name it such that it can distinguish) and GL data, it works. I’m assuming you have enterprise LLM to meet security needs. Again, assuming you are not looking for system solutions… typically basic ERP have bank recon functionality.
I avoid naming specific tools given my relationship with sponsors, but most of them can do 80-90% of the job. Just make sure to check that what ever tool you use plays nice with any 3rd party tools that you need it to as well. Some do better here than others
This is great. Can you share more around the ARR to GAAP Revenue Analysis? How are you organizing or setting up the data (exporting ARR data from CRM and Revenue data from NetSuite into Excel for example)? Are customer names exactly the same between systems? What prompts are you using in Excel to highlight differences to analyze? Thanks!
This an awesome post. Something I've been hoping someone would write for a while now! Question I wanted to pose for you and the thread:
Given how close you are to the leading edge of adoption / use-cases I was curious to get your thoughts (and anyone else on on the thread) what your thoughts on how AI is changing the nature of the Finance, but specifically in the context of efficiency / automation vs. disruption/transformation:
To me there is a major difference as you go from efficiency / automation ("how" a job gets done) towards actual disruption and transformation ("What" the job is)
Using the taxi industry as an example: In many ways, Uber/Lyft didn't really change the nature of the job of taxi driving. It's more efficiency / automation around various aspects of the job. On the other hand, Waymo/Driverless cars would actually disrupt/transform the job of taxi drivers.
So when I look at the above Finance examples, right now, the change seems more in the nature of "Efficiency / Automation" (do more with less) vs. total transformation. **But can you see a path to a change more like Driverless Cars in the finance function? Do we ever get to a world where Finance can operate without Excel?**
(To be clear: this is not to say the above examples are not substantial improvements (they are), more that the nature of the change seems different than what I think about disruption / transformation. For example, Software Engineering: I'm not a software engineer, so I may be missing many aspects of the job, but when I see what's happening there with AI, there does seem to be more clearly a path to major changes of what that job is.)
Yeah, right now these examples fit very much in the efficiency bucket. But…I have talked to a few vendors who are reimagining how the work actually gets done. Some interesting stuff coming…
Would you mind sharing what tool you have been using for Bank recon?
There is a quiet revolution going on in finance and accounting. Tools like alteryx, python (pandas, num py) with Jupyter notes are becoming the go to tool. Given the core expectation is to have “trusted” “auditable” source data, many are waiting for erps to provide gen ai tools. Small productivity improvements are already visible in the areas you called out. I also feel - accountants need to be trained … I see the west / east coast f&a folks to be savvy but not many. If you are looking for “value” and productivity improvements, there is maybe 2 years to see it. I wouldn’t be surprised if by 2028, data entry is fully automated using agentic ai. You should also look up this website ( an accountant who now has a lot of free tools on ai/ gen ai). Haven’t used it but see pretty neat - https://www.chipmunkrpa.com/finance-compliance.
Cheers
If you are a Microsoft office / 365 user, try power automate. Your internal IT team should be able to get it done. Alternatively, if you upload 2/4 examples of recon on llm, ask it to be a treasury and bank recon and accounting export and to perform a bank reconciliation by uploading to your bank statement (name it such that it can distinguish) and GL data, it works. I’m assuming you have enterprise LLM to meet security needs. Again, assuming you are not looking for system solutions… typically basic ERP have bank recon functionality.
I avoid naming specific tools given my relationship with sponsors, but most of them can do 80-90% of the job. Just make sure to check that what ever tool you use plays nice with any 3rd party tools that you need it to as well. Some do better here than others
This is great. Can you share more around the ARR to GAAP Revenue Analysis? How are you organizing or setting up the data (exporting ARR data from CRM and Revenue data from NetSuite into Excel for example)? Are customer names exactly the same between systems? What prompts are you using in Excel to highlight differences to analyze? Thanks!
Yes - I should do a write up specifically on this analysis because A LOT of companies don't do it well (or at al). And I think its really important