Yeah, you know me! (Shout out to all the Naughty By Nature fans out there!)

All kidding aside, the use of ChatGPT in the workplace has been a growing trend. According to a recent survey, nearly 43% of 12,000 professionals responded or reported that they had used AI tools to perform some work related tasks, with over 70% of those individuals doing it without their boss’s knowledge.

Many people view Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, like ChatGPT, as either a threat to their jobs or a way to automate some of the more mundane and thinking tasks of their duties. Our field, specifically certain finance and accounting functions, has been significantly impacted by AI.

Does this mean that our jobs are going to be taken over by AI eventually? We don’t think so.

Will the tasks performed by a key finance executive today remain unchanged over the next decade? Highly unlikely.

As a Fractional CFO firm that consults with entrepreneurs both domestically and internationally, it is important to stay on top of current trends — such as AI tools. And from our perspective, there are several tasks that are currently handled by finance staff that can be streamlined and made more efficient. These improvements will allow your finance teams to do higher-level thinking and tasks without reducing staff levels.

Here are two ways to view AI tools that can enhance your accounting functions’ return on investment (ROI):

1. 1. Accounting Policies and Procedures: An important, but often overlooked, task of accounting departments is to document the key policies and procedures of the business. Matters such as bank reconciliations, US Gaap rules, and operating manuals on how to input journal entries in your ERP are some quick examples of tasks that can be documented efficiently using AI.
  2. Creating Dashboards: Most entrepreneurs and small business owners like viewing snapshots of their financial results and key performance indicators (KPIs). What has historically been a manually intensive process of creating and maintaining these key statistical summaries can be more easily updated using AI tools to call up data and perform recurring calculations. Utilizing AI frees up CFOs’ time to analyze and dissect data instead of validating and double-checking the accuracy of the source data.

As finance executives, it’s important that we are on the cutting edge of new techniques in the workplace — and right now, AI is on trend. Business owners need to ascertain how AI can best fit into their company’s day-to-day activities. While AI has the ability to take over tasks normally performed manually, it is easy to see how technology, such as ChatGPT, can actually enhance the value-added aspects of your finance team, enabling them to think, analyze, and make faster decisions — a better allocation of the company’s resources.

Take-away: If you feel that your finance and accounting team is not working at optimal efficiency, reach out to Scott or Brian at info@acceleratingcfo.com for a free diagnostic and discussion about the best-in-breed for your company and industry.

Brian Califano