As organizations continue to worry less about the economy and pivot back towards growth goals, artificial intelligence remains elusive to add to the mix.
While CFOs still have strong interest these technologies, only 15% of finance chiefs surveyed said they are actively incorporating generative AI into their strategies, Deloitte’s 2023 Q3 Signals Survey found.
While the incorporation into strategy is low, the hype has indeed triggered interest among finance leaders. Almost half (42%) of all respondents said they are experimenting with AI, and nearly a quarter (24%) said they are reading and talking about GenAI. Roughly two-thirds of surveyed CFOs say less than 1% of next year’s budget will be spent on AI and about one-third of CFOs project 1% to 5%.
Few CFOs have expressed hesitancy or a dismissal of the technology altogether, according to findings. While nearly a fifth (17%) said it’s too soon to tell where their organization is on their GenAI journey, very few are taking a passive approach. Only 2% said they are waiting it out to see what their competitors do.
CFOs, ever the skeptics, examine this incorporation from a business risk perspective. When asked about concerns regarding GenAI, it appears leadership is more concerned with its impact from an operational perspective. Top risk concerns include impact on risk and internal controls (57%), data infrastructure and technology needs (52%), and investment needs (51%).
Delegating AI Leadership
As CFOs have stressed the importance of delegating tasks, AI incorporation and the work it brings must be divvied up. Leadership teams and their companies have a near-split strategy on how to facilitate AI leadership.
With companies either giving full reign of assignment to the technology or assigning different elements of AI to different parts of the company, organizations agreed on one thing when it comes to AI leadership — not a single CFO said they were in charge of the transition themselves. Fifty-nine percent of CFOs assigned their technology leader to GenAI ownership. Nearly a third (30%) said they dispersed it to multiple groups within IT and business.
Although other leaders are handling GenAI’s adoption, CFOs still hope their organizations can see benefits in costs and customer service. Over half (52%) of CFO respondents said they hope AI will reduce costs, alongside 50% who said they hope it’ll improve customer experience. Areas such as competition and market upkeep, things most successful CFOs can confidently do themselves, are at the bottom of the list.
What Holds Finance Back?
Outside of general skepticism and concerns, finance leaders believe their organizations are being held back by external factors in their incorporation process. As they continue to make changes that are impactful to their people, CFO concerns lie in places like data quality and compliance as well.
The struggle for quality talent, an area that hits close to home for finance teams, is the biggest challenge CFOs must overcome when adopting and deploying generative AI technologies. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of all respondents said talent resources and capabilities were their biggest barrier in this area. Nearly half of respondents added data and technology resources and risk and governance concerns in that category as well (49% and 45%, respectively).