These eight use cases give you a flavour of how accounting and finance teams could deploy AI – particularly generative AI (GenAI) – to assist with various activities. When using AI, it’s important to remember that, while it can be extremely useful, it is not without its limitations. Anything it produces should be seen as a starting point and will require human input to ensure that it is accurate and appropriate for the task in hand. Keep that in mind when trying any of the following.

GenAI can assist in drafting and refining control documents and procedural guidelines, improving compliance with regulatory standards and promoting consistent operational practices. Human users should review and approve the final documentation.

By analysing existing procedures, in-house GenAI tools can identify possible inefficiencies and potential areas for improvement. This will give you a starting point for benchmarking processes and make it easier for team members to do their own analysis and create an action plan for process improvements.

In-house GenAI tools can serve as a co-pilot by summarising team chats and long email trails, particularly after staff return from annual leave. This reduces downtime and helps maintain continuity in communication. Additionally, it aids in writing emails, job descriptions and marketing materials.

GenAI can help in drafting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) objectives. This provides a structured framework to build on for either your own or team members’ career goals and measurables. Ideally, this would be a starting point for a conversation in which you define these performance goals with your employee. Likewise, you could use it to create a personal plan that you can use to keep track of career objectives.

Translating financial data presented in other languages to English can become seamless with GenAI, improving accuracy and saving time. AI also functions as a starting point for addressing UK and US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and International Financial Reporting Standards queries. Caution should be exercised here; be sure to verify the information as AI hallucinations can result in inaccurate results.

GenAI can answer all manner of Excel queries, including complex formulas, pivot charts and dynamic reporting, significantly enhancing data handling and analytical capabilities within the finance team. The conversion of Excel data into Power Query M or Data Analysis Expression language for Power BI report building can be streamlined with AI, fostering dynamic and insightful reports. AI can also help in creating and updating key performance indicators for business partnering and financial analysis.

Routine tasks can be scripted and entire sections of VBA code written by AI, liberating the team from repetitive tasks and allowing them to focus on more strategic work.

Machine learning can also be used to write scripts that automate bank reconciliations, prepayments, accruals and board reporting. These scripts can transform processes that previously took weeks into tasks that can be completed in seconds, with just a single button press linked via application programming interface to finance systems.

You can integrate policies such as expense policies into AI systems, allowing staff to query AI directly instead of approaching the finance department, and therefore streamlining operations.