Charlotte, North Carolina, November 13, 2024 – As AI in finance continues picking up momentum, the recent survey shows alarming results between 200 and 300 CFOs representing 60% of global revenue. To put it simply, there is a trend in CFOs issuing threats to cease AI expenditures if they don’t witness a gain within three years.
Despite all plans to embed more AI in financial transactions, the Basware “AI to ROI” report commissioned by Financial Times Longitude indicates that people are making up excuses. Economic recovery is the main retort as 41% report being able to meet deadlines for investment.
What the report identifies is that 32% of finance leaders are focused on cost efficiency and believe that there is room for automation of tasks like e-invoicing compliance.
CFOs, on the other hand, still have some doubts when being asked how they even commence,
“The focus of the AI angle in business investment is about how the meat of the angle, the AI has for the business that smart people can do and capture from execution.”
An investment to prove costly in today’s business will in the future prompt a focus on areas that require quick focused returns such as compliance and fraud detection.
One of the most well-known companies on the world stage when it comes to paper and packaging — Billerud – perfectly testifies to what successful AI adoption looks like.
Billerud, a global paper and packaging leader, serves as a case study of successful AI adoption. Leveraging Basware’s SmartPDF AI, Billerud automated over 90% of its invoices, reducing error rates and achieving ROI in months.
“The quality of invoices has improved considerably,”
Stated Jesper Persson, Business Developer at Billerud, who emphasized that their AI journey directly translated into cost savings.
The challenges of pursuing innovation while maintaining accountability are still relevant for CFOs, however, the insights do underline that the AI in finance hype may well be short-lived if the financial ROI from its integration is not apparent soon.