Many CFOs have already adopted Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Power BI, automation platforms and a growing number of specialist finance applications. They’ve invested in better data, modern ERPs and cloud-based reporting.Yet something is still “missing”. Or maybe it’s actually someone.
Because what a lot of finance leaders we’re speak to have discovered is that the biggest barrier to AI isn’t the technology itself, it’s having someone who knows how to connect everything together – and giving them the time to do it. During a recent discussion on AI in finance, Krystelle Adamson shared a perfect example.
Rather than hiring another finance professional, she recruited someone with experience delivering finance systems and digital transformation projects.
Within weeks they had automated weekly performance reporting, built tools that generated month-end board packs at the press of a button and removed many of the repetitive administrative tasks that consume finance teams every month.
None of this relied on more technology. Hiring someone who understood how to make their existing tools work together was all that it took.
The Multiplier Effect
Perhaps the most interesting point Krystelle raised wasn’t even the impact of the automation itself but the affect on the team that came from giving one person with the right skills, the space and time to explore the possibilities and “connect the dots”.
Once the wider finance team could see tools being developed that removed many of the mundane tasks, they became more curious and in turn more confident using AI themselves. They began asking better questions, experimenting with modelling, exploring new ways of analysing data and using AI to solve problems they previously didn’t know how to tackle.
The Question for Finance Leaders
As organisations continue investing in AI, finance leaders may want to ask a different question. Rather than asking whether they have the right technology, they should ask whether they have the right capability inside the team to unlock its full potential.
Because in many organisations, the next breakthrough won’t come from buying another AI tool but from hiring the person who knows how to make everything work together.
