The Future Of Finance

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Finance AI Academy powered by OneStream. My name is Tiffany Ma and today we'll be talking to Tim Minahan, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer here at OneStream Software about the future of finance. Tim, thanks so much for being here with us today. Thanks for having me, Tiffany.

So Tim, tell me about the Finance 2035 initiative and why did OneStream launch this? Well, OneStream's vision is to be the operating system for modern finance. And we knew if we were going to deliver on that, we felt it pretty important to have a good idea of where the finance function and the office of the CFO was going.

So we partnered with businesses, academia, governmental agencies to launch Finance 2035, which is a research driven initiative that's really designed to engage and foster ongoing dialogue amongst senior finance executives, really on how the office of the CFO is evolving to become a strategic driver for business innovation and growth. And so we kicked this off last year with a survey and interviews of over 2000 CFOs, CEOs, business leaders, and investors.

And our goal was to really understand the changing role of finance, their key challenges and their priorities for the decade ahead. That sounds like a really big study. What were some initial findings that you found from the study? What's top of mind for CFOs and finance leaders?

No matter where we looked or who we asked, whether it was CEOs, business leaders, investors, they all viewed the role of the CFO and the finance function becoming far more strategic in the years ahead. The business is really looking for finance to go beyond just solely reporting on past performance and to really start predicting and guiding the future strategy and growth of the business.

So much so that more than two thirds of CEOs and business leaders say organization success or failure rests squarely on the shoulders of the CFO. And investors identified the competence of the CFO as the second most important factor when considering investing in a company. But how is finance preparing to do that? To shift from that backwards reporting to the more strategic forward-looking organization that steers the business forward?

Taking on this broader remit really means overcoming challenges related to things like data management, systems modernization, and talent. So more than three quarters of CFOs say having a unified view of corporate data is the top imperative for finance to become a more strategic driver of the business.

An essential source of quality data that you can trust is also essential for companies to effectively leverage AI. So it's not surprising that a near equal amount of CFOs expect AI to fundamentally reshape the finance function over the next few years. And a large majority of CFOs recognize that the time to modernize and invest in AI is now. In fact, a full 70% believe that organizations that fail to invest in AI today will not survive in the next five years.

How is the role of CFOs expected to change over the next 10 years? What are the expectations from CEOs and investors? In all these dialogues, a few key competencies for CFOs consistently bubble to the top.

So first being at the center of the business and generally the face to the board and investors, CFOs must now master cross-functional leadership. They must be able to drive change management, develop that AI literacy we keep talking about, and be effective storyteller. The key to the storytellers with data. The CEOs and the boards and investors expect CFOs to be really visionary communicators capable of translating complex financials into strategic and compelling narratives.

That's a significant investment in AI. Tell me, how is finance applying AI today and what kind of benefits are they seeing and how are they actually measuring the success? Well, the good news is that initial investments in AI are definitely delivering results. More than half of the CFOs responding to the survey report productivity improvements from their AI investments. But however, many are experiencing what I might call growing pains.

So 40% of CFOs cite challenges moving from AI pilots to enterprise-wide deployment. And the biggest barriers to expansion really being lack of clarity on who owns AI strategy, that AI skills gap among employees that we discussed, and that pervasively nagging issue of data fragmentation and quality. So as a result, many CFOs still worry about future payback for their AI investments.

And I think part of this worry is motivated by the fact that the study found that their boards are demanding measurable ROI from AI. And that falls squarely at the feet of the CFO. In fact, 97% of CFOs say their boards expect them to provide regular updates on AI progress with cost savings and ROI and productivity gains as the top metrics that boards are interested in.

So clearly, we're at an inflection finance is a good point. Finance is being asked to take on this broader and more strategic remit. And CFOs really view the effective use of AI as one of the largest predictors, both literally and figuratively, of their future success.

So I would argue that it's not hyperbole to say that the future of finance is finance AI. Tim, thank you so much for joining us today on Finance AI Academy, powered by OneStream. Thanks for having me, Tiffany. Thank you.