Redefining The Evolving Role Of CFOs In The AI Era

In today’s dynamic economy, the role of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is multifaceted and critical to the success of an organisation. As the financial landscape becomes increasingly complex, CFOs play a pivotal role in navigating uncertainties and driving strategic decision-making. Moreover, CFOs are at the forefront of digital transformation initiatives, leveraging technology and data analytics to drive efficiency, enhance productivity and unlock new growth opportunities.

Deepak Rastogi, President Finance and Group CFO, Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals explains, “We are testing all the AI and analytics products right now to determine what will work best. We have done a lot of work on supply chain management specially on the pricing tools, decision making and more. When talking about fertilisers specifically, we gather data from the farmers so we can understand their needs and place our product appropriately.”

Rastogi further mentions that companies must test which tools will suit their requirement best. He says that nothing is available off the shelf these days, everything needs to be customised and implemented for the specific needs of any company.

Jyoti Prakash Gadia, Managing Director, Resurgent India asserts, “For small and medium size companies, the mindset has changed. The companies are more willing to experiment and take more risks now which is a good thing.”

Gadia adds that the cost has become a very prohibitive factor in implementing AI solutions for small and medium sized companies as AI is the newest buzzword in the technology era and the cost of any solution increases as soon as the word ‘AI’ gets attached to it.

P K Harihara Subramanian, CFO – India, Cognizant Technology Solutions emphasises, “The root of the problem is not really understanding what AI is about. Looking back at how CFOs treat the world of AI, a few years ago, everyone was on the internet and you had a lot of opportunities to bring AI into the system which is what happened and now suddenly AI is everywhere. It’s also not the case that AI was invented yesterday; the Alan Turing tests in the 1950’s popularised the concept of AI. In the later 1950’s was when the first chatbot was developed in an MIT lab.”

Subramanium notes that CFOs are looking at the hasty AI adoption as a very serious concern along with a lack of capital.

At the BW CFO World Finance Leadership & Strategy Summit 2024, Tanmay Kumar, Group CFO, Shiprocket asserts, “I think the technology is growing at a pace where it’s almost impossible to keep up. Most of us who have used the word AI are using it in the context of an intelligent tool. The level to which AI tools have now evolved is unbelievable. We have used AI in many places but I feel like we are only beginning to learn the scope of the technology and where it can be implemented in different ways.”