Lawrence Martin is the chief product officer and head of public cloud engineering at Walldorf, Germany-based enterprise software firm SAP. Views are the author’s own.
For many CFOs, the year-end close is the most stressful period of the fiscal calendar. It demands precision and transparency in a time of intense pressure.
In a landscape defined by economic uncertainty, shifting regulations, evolving compliance mandates and persistent talent shortages, finance teams are tested now more than ever. The margin for error has nearly vanished, yet expectations for accuracy and strategic foresight continue to rise.
Siloed data and manual processes make real-time decision-making almost impossible, turning year-end close into a scramble instead of a strategic opportunity. In a recent study by Economist Impact, more than half of CFO respondents cited fragmented data and limited visibility as major barriers to decision-making, undermining the close. What was once a technical exercise in closing the books has become a high-stakes mandate to sustain confidence across the business.
This is where AI is transforming finance. It’s giving CFOs and their teams the confidence, control and capacity to close faster and plan further ahead.
Getting past the scramble
Year-end closing has long been a manual marathon. Teams spend weeks preparing accruals, reconciling mismatched data, and chasing updates from miscellaneous spreadsheets. These repetitive tasks not only slow down the ability to proactively plan for the next year but also increase the likelihood of costly errors. In a volatile landscape, that risk can translate directly into trapped cash or missed opportunities.
In fact, a Gartner study found that 18% of accountants make financial errors at least once a day, with more than half making several mistakes each month. Relying solely on labor-intensive processes introduces business risk, including the potential for inaccurate financial statements.
AI helps finance teams move from reaction to prevention. Intelligent systems can flag anomalies, predict adjustments and surface insights long before the numbers are finalized. What once required late nights and multiple approvals can now happen in near real time, with accuracy and transparency built in. This helps teams not only automate but anticipate.
Today’s finance teams require technology that reasons, explains and acts. Applications like agentic AI, for instance, can calculate accruals, reconcile cash positions and recommend optimization steps automatically. But each action must come with a clear explanation of the logic behind it, which strengthens trust and accelerates review cycles.
This next generation of AI does more than complete tasks, though; it learns context and guides future decisions. Models can summarize financial reports, draft variance analyses, or translate data into insights that the entire leadership team can understand. The goal is not to replace finance expertise but to augment it with precision and foresight.
Breaking down silos
Supported by AI, CFOs can step fully into their evolving role as strategic leaders. Finance is no longer just the keeper of scorecards; it is the conductor of the enterprise, aligning every function to performance outcomes.
But if they fail to integrate AI, finance departments risk entering the year-end close with outdated processes, leading to avoidable errors and weakened decision-making when they need clarity. For example, a single misclassified expense or mismatched invoice — issues AI can flag instantly — can cascade into reconciliation delays, restatements and last-minute scrambles.
These risks underscore a larger truth: What enables this transformation is not AI in isolation, but AI working with other systems from across the business, with data moving seamlessly across finance, operations, HR and supply chain functions. Together, these advances turn the year-end close into a continuous, insight-driven process rather than a one-time sprint. When data, context and automation come together, CFOs gain confidence, which can only reduce uncertainty during a period of intense scrutiny.
Looking ahead
AI is rapidly transforming the future of finance, laying the groundwork for a world where routine processes run autonomously and real-time insights become the norm.
As intelligent agents take on the operational burden, finance leaders gain the freedom to do what they do best: model future scenarios, shape investment strategies and strengthen cross-functional alignment. AI doesn’t replace the strategic influence of the CFO but instead elevates it. With accurate data and instant insights, leaders can anticipate shifts, guide the business with confidence and drive growth with greater precision and speed.
At the same time, this evolution raises the bar for governance. Transparent systems, robust controls and strong data standards are essential to ensuring AI-driven processes remain compliant, trustworthy and aligned with business priorities. Effective oversight becomes a strategic enabler, not a constraint.
As companies prepare to close the fiscal year, one reality is undeniable: AI is no longer a future aspiration for finance. It has become the foundation of modern leadership, empowering organizations to act decisively, adapt quickly and unlock new possibilities.
