Cisco Systems is exploring use cases for generative artificial intelligence that may increase the productivity of its finance department.
The network equipment company says it’s specializing in 4 key areas and has launched a series of pilot projects to detect fraud through intelligent monitoring, provide intelligent forecasting, extract insights from data and simplify the processing of complex documents.
But despite all this ongoing work, Scott Herren, EVP and Chief Financial Officer of Cisco, remains to be pondering ahead. “What are the following challenges that we do not see today, where AI might be an enormous help? [with]too?” Herren asked rhetorically as he joined other CFO leaders in a virtual panel discussion hosted by Assets. “We are still working on that.”
CFOs and Herren are grappling with the changing relationship between people and technology, says Joseph Fuller, professor of management practice and co-director of the Managing the Future of Work project at Harvard Business School. For many years, Fuller explains, corporations have tried to supply their leaders with data to enable them to make higher decisions.
But there are an increasing number of AI-based tools that undergo multiple data sets and present recommendations to humans. The responsibility of employees is shifting to approving the choices made by machines. This shift has turned the connection between humans and technology on its head.
For CFOs and finance departments, this implies not doing retrospective evaluation of past trends – including pricing, revenue and market share – and attempting to make predictions. Instead, AI tools are getting used to alert CFOs earlier in order that they can higher plan for risk.
“You’ll have the ability to identify problems much earlier, allowing you to manage your risks much more effectively,” Fuller said. “Whether it’s supply chain risk, overstock risk, or loss of market share due to price changes, all of these things will become much more visible to the CFO organization, so they’re not limited to after-the-fact, late interventions to correct performance deficiencies.”
Joy Mbanugo, CFO at IT service management company ServiceRocket, said she encouraged her team to embrace AI. And in some cases, younger employees who’re particularly keen to make use of AI to enhance their jobs were even ahead of their very own expectations of the technology.
“Yes, some people who turn to AI are more strategic,” Mbanugo said.
She sees great potential in AI providing practical support, for instance through the use of a chat function to speak complex topics in multiple languages to ServiceRocket team members in several markets world wide. AI might be used to design internal policy changes. AI can also be getting used to higher predict sales.
“I think, ‘What is the state of the art? And what is going to help finance teams make better decisions by being able to leverage all this data very quickly – it takes minutes, not days,'” Mbanugo said.
Checkr, which performs background checks for corporations, has been using AI since its launch a decade ago. But the introduction of ChatGPT and other AI tools has lowered the barrier to using latest technologies like generative AI and may also lower the fee of accessing AI.
For venture-backed corporations like Checkr, this is significant. Expectations for startups have modified, especially after the U.S. government raised rates of interest to combat inflation, putting pressure on startups to be more cautious with their spending.
“We’re finding that the intensity and pressure to demonstrate profitability is greater than ever before,” said Naeem Ishag, CFO at Checkr. “So using AI can dramatically increase profitability by automating tasks around things like first-line operations, increasing employee productivity and ultimately contributing to the bottom line.”
Fuller said AI is such a game-changer that corporations should design entire processes to maximise and leverage the advantages that come from the technology, after which organize their team members around AI quite than integrating AI into existing ways of working.
He said the most important risk corporations face today in AI-driven transformation is that they proceed too cautiously. Studies consistently agree together with his view. A recent survey by consulting giant EY found that only 26% of chief information officers have used AI in any meaningful way, and that lower than half have even gotten to a test project or proof of concept.
“You take a big risk if you go slow and your arch rivals are fast, especially if they are bigger,” Fuller said.
