The steady forward creep of artificial intelligence is “pushing for a different skillset in the finance function,” accelerating the ongoing evolution of CFOs to strategic advisors, said Jennifer Warawa, general manager of controllership at insightsoftware.

The technology is changing the role of the finance chief, enabling access to insights in a way that puts accounting or finance leaders in a “great place to be more of an advisor inside the company and be more futuristic,” Warawa said in a interview. Additionally, as finance leaders integrate AI into some of the more routine, lower value processes inside of the function, such as automating accounts payable or receivable, that frees up more time for the individuals who were previously in charge of such processes.

However, that “does then put a spotlight on, what do you do with that time now?” Warawa said. “The idea is that people become more advisory in nature and become more of an integrated part of the go-forward story of the business, and working with the business leaders,” but that represents different capabilities and skills that need to utilized, and honed, by those professionals, she said.  

Managing the AI inflection point

As the spotlight continues to shine on AI’s potential, finance chiefs feel the pressure to integrate it into their businesses operations, including the finance function, CFO Dive previously reported. Many are eying the technology as a way to bridge ongoing talent shortages in areas like accounting, or to help more effectively manage costs amid a murky macroeconomic environment.

Oftentimes, finance is viewed as a cost center that is being pushed to deliver results with a smaller team — while the workload remains the same, and in some cases, increases, Warawa said. “So even if they don't want to embrace AI, they feel like they need to, because it's the only way that the work is going to get done with a smaller team,” she said.

On the one hand, that forces further innovation and adoption inside of the finance function, but “it's also causing people to go into a territory that they're not especially comfortable in or excited about,” she said.

A veteran of the accounting industry, Warawa has spent most of her career working around the office of the CFO space, she said. Warawa founded and operated an accounting and consulting firm, Dreamscape Business Services, for 12 years, before moving to take a number of top executive roles during an 11-year tenure at business software provider Sage. She joined the Raleigh, North Carolina-based insightsoftware in May as part of a strategic realignment by the financial reporting software firm, taking ownership of its newly-minted controllership business unit, according to a press release at the time.

For CFOs to not only be able to utilize AI effectively, but to prepare for the future of the finance function as a driver of strategy, they need to pay close attention to how their teams think about and interact with the technology.

Presently, “we’re almost at this inflection point where you've got the talent that's excited about technology and what it means for them in the future, and then the talent that's like, ‘I think that technology is going to take my job,’” Warawa said. Being able to respond to both perceptions in a way that allows space for growth — on both a technology and talent level — is critical for CFOs.

Putting tech in the right places

Warawa likens AI’s forward march in finance to her early days in accounting, working with individuals who had just gained their certified public accounting licenses and spent their days photocopying documents.

“When automation came in and they went paperless, they weren't like, ‘Oh, I hope that paperless doesn't take my job…[because] I didn't want to do that job in the first place,’” she said. “So I think about it as, the talent that can leverage technology to do their job better and faster will be the winners in this equation. So how do you empower your best people to leverage technology in new and different ways and not be afraid of it?”

As well as examining the team’s use of AI, it’s also important for CFOs to take a tactical approach to where and why they apply the technology — with the clear understanding that if “a process that is broken will not get fixed by AI,” Warawa said. “It will still be broken. It's just AI might do it faster, in a broken way.”