Agentic AI is about to reshape finance more in the next 24 months than ERPs did in the last 20 years
What Does it Mean for Finance?
As we move forward into the unknown with the rapid development of AI, the question on everyone’s mind is: how will it impact me? Naturally, finance professionals are asking themselves the same question – and the quick answer is: in ways we can only start to imagine now.
One thing is for sure. Every finance professional needs to hop on the bandwagon and get going, get understanding and get tactical. As per Boomi (a cloud-based integration platform), “agentic transformation represents the next stage in in the evolution of accelerating business productivity.” These agents – AI powered software programs – “have memory, can make decisions, interact with systems and perform work with minimal or no human intervention.” Boomi estimates that 60% of companies are exploring the use of AI agents.
For CFOs and senior finance leaders, the question is no longer how can AI improve finance? It is how can it transform it entirely into a highly integrated, forward-looking strategic engine? AI has the potential to touch every workstream in finance:
· Transaction processing
· Financial control
· Reporting and consolidation
· Budgeting and forecasting
· Treasury and cash
· Procurement and payables
· Compliance and analytics
Unlike traditional automation, agentic AI can interpret ambiguous situations, learn continuously and executive multi-step tasks end-to-end with minimal human intervention. Pause for a moment and take that in. We are moving from automation to something else entirely.
Think about agents that can auto-process 95% of invoices and resolve exceptions on their own. Or a sales forecasting tool that can incorporate historical daily sales data and cross-reference against a multitude of data points (weather, seasonality, stock market, oil prices, etc.) to forecast sales for the remainder of the year with as many sensitivities as you want.
What Now?
Finance leaders need to start thinking today about how quickly they can re-design their operating models to capture the potential of agentic AI. This means building an AI strategy and a realistic roadmap.
A critical tip: do not delegate this task to IT. Finance should lead cross-functional adoption, champion data governance and own the “single source of truth”
And if you are not a digital-native finance professional that is perfectly fine. This is not about writing code or becoming an AI engineer overnight. It is about gaining an understanding of how technology can create value and then leading your teams confidently through this transformation.
If you would like help shaping your AI finance strategy or roadmap, feel free to contact us.
