Disruptors
The world of business has faced many global challenges and disruptions since our research published in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic forced organisations to navigate changes in how people work and how goods and services needed to be delivered. Other drivers of change identified in our research — including economic changes, political instability, increased risks and uncertainty, new regulations, competition, and technology — are not new but have changed significantly in their frequency, intensity, and amount since the pandemic. Along with their aftermaths, these drivers have contributed to a continuous re-evaluation of how businesses operate.
Our new research has shown that the profession is expanding in breadth and depth to affect a variety of domains like technology, sustainability, and leadership. Finance professionals are viewed as savvy analysts, communicators, and business partners who are growing and improving organisations internally to influence their business models and affect decision-making.
‘As the role of finance is expanding hugely, the accountant needs tools to be able to cope with that, which is where technology and automation come in’. Director of Business Development, Oil and Gas, UAE.
Organisations are transforming to become more effective and efficient in their ways of operating, delivering services, communicating, innovating, accessing, and leveraging data. Organisations that we engaged with throughout our research recognised the growing need to leverage technology and tools to create opportunities, reduce risks, and drive value. Organisational leaders acknowledged the imperative to transform the finance function with the common understanding that technology is the enabler. It is the universal language to help drive the transformation.
When ChatGPT-4, one of the latest generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots by OpenAI, was launched in March 2023, it generated a buzz within discussions about the possibilities of generative AI in finance. Some participants even suggested that advances in AI technology could fundamentally change not just finance, but many other industries as well.
The reality is that chatbots are not new. In fact, one of the first, ELIZA, was developed in 1966. And, while there are many other chatbots available today, ChatGPT was the first major project to roll out such AI publicly, introducing millions to the possibilities of generative AI chatbots.
This technology is quickly being adopted across many industries. Of 4,500 people surveyed by Fishbowl, a social platform owned by Glassdoor, in January 2023, more than 30% claimed to have tried ChatGPT or other AI tools within their profession.1 Amongst the respondents were employees at Google, Amazon, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Twitter, and Meta. This AI chatbot has the potential to revolutionise many industries, and finance is not exempt.
Generative AI, like ChatGPT-4, can generate real-time answers from user queries, which animated our roundtable discussions on opportunities and challenges for the finance function. It can uplift the finance function with its ability to process large datasets, analyse financial markets, forecast outcomes, and help meet regulatory and compliance requirements among others.
With its quick processing, it can potentially improve productivity and strengthen data-driven decision-making. Furthermore, it has been reported that ‘it can be trained on various financial data, such as historical financial statements and market data, and its conversational analysis of findings can help identify which model parameters carry the most weight on the outcome. Once AI identifies key variables, it can offer suggestions for adjusting the model accordingly’.2
Although the potential scope and capability of generative AI could be expansive, concerns were raised in our conversations about the ethical integrity of AI chatbots and the potential for bias in the analysis of the data. Concerns were also raised about privacy and data security risks, which could lead to the misuse of user data, breaches of trust, and ethical violations. Another concern was the lack of transparency of the ‘black box’ making it difficult to understand their decision-making processes. Users have the right to know how and why decisions are made. Despite its early development, interviewees agreed that AI cannot replace professional judgement. Humans must have a role in reviewing and analysing its outputs and override it if necessary. Ethical considerations of AI among other technologies can be found in the recent AICPA-CIMA report ‘Making good decisions: Building trust in a world of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing’.*
* Content available to AICPA & CIMA members only
