How can AI help CFOs make better decisions?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significant potential to enhance decision-making for Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) by providing data-driven insights, automating routine tasks, and enabling more accurate forecasts.

How can AI improve decision-making?

AI can improve decision-making by providing better and faster data analysis. It can also improve the quality of information by reducing human errors and manual processes. By replacing or improving time-consuming activities in financial reporting, AI can free up time and allow us to focus more on tactical and strategic decisions.

6 tips on how AI can help you as a CFO make better decisions!

1. Data Analysis and Insights

AI can quickly and accurately analyse large volumes of financial and operational data, identifying patterns and trends that may not be immediately apparent to humans. This can help CFOs gain deeper insights into the company's capabilities, market trends, and customer behavior, enabling them to make informed decisions.

2. Financial forecasts

AI-driven predictive analytics can improve forecast accuracy by considering multiple variables and historical trends. This allows a CFO to predict market changes, revenue fluctuations, and financial risks more effectively, leading to more precise financial planning and resource allocation.

3. Risk Management

AI can analyse historical data to identify potential financial risks and suggest risk-reducing strategies. This helps a CFO make more informed decisions about investments, debt management, and other financial decisions that affect's the company's risk profile.

4. Strategic planning

AI can assist CFOs in scenario analysis and strategic planning by simulating the effects of various business decisions. Through quality-assured calculation models in a structured solution for both management and decision support the uncertainty present in, for example, spontaneously created spreadsheets is eliminated. This allows a CFO to evaluate different options and choose the one with the best potential outcome.

5. Fewer Human Errors

Many functions falling under the purview of a CFO involve numerous repetitive tasks that deal with large volumes of data in various software platforms, such as ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning) or FP&A systems (Financial Planning and Analysis). Typically, this requires manual data extraction from different systems or copy-pasting into spreadsheets like Excel. AI-enabled system support can reduce or even eliminate human errors by automating these processes.

6. Reporting and Communication

AI can automate the generation of financial reports and dashboards, making it easier for CFOs to communicate financial insights to other stakeholders in a timely manner. It's also possible to use AI-generated thresholds to trigger report generation and distribution or create alerts in the system.

Our conclusion is that incorporating AI-assisted system support into a CFO's decision-making process requires careful planning, data integration, and ongoing training. It's important for CFOs to understand the strengths and limitations of AI systems and use them as tools to enhance their expertise rather than replace the judgment that comes from their own experience.

How AI is used in Mercur Business Control®

At Mercur, we have developed the market leading solution for business control and decision support, Mercur Business Control®, which can be easily customized and implemented in all types of organizations.

In Mercur Business Control®, we provide functionality that uses Artificial Intelligence to predict future results based on your historical data. The solution uses machine learning to analyse historical data to find trends, patterns, and seasonal variations and then extrapolates them to create new predicted data points. The end result can be saved as its own scenario for comparison and analysis with budgets, forecasts, or actual outcomes.

This helps you as a CFO in your work by saving you time and providing you with enhanced decision support for forecasting. To further facilitate your work, it is also easy to include these predictions in reports and charts just like any other data in the system. For example, the system can suggest predicted values for fields in forecast and budget templates that would otherwise need to be filled in manually.

Make Better Decisions with Mercur Business Control®

With Mercur Business Control®, you can easily gather data, analyze, and generate dynamic reports that provide you and your colleagues with a comprehensive view of where your company is and where it's heading. In other words, you get a quick, user-friendly, flexible, and efficient solution for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, analysis, and performance management.

For almost 50 years, we have assisted hundreds of leading organizations in various industries in managing their operational challenges, allowing them to have time for analysis and future planning.

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Mercur Solutions (UK) Limited - UK office

Mercur Solutions Limited
Ocean House, The Ring, Bracknell RG12 1AX, United Kingdom
+44 (0) 1344 388 025

Mercur Solutions AB - head office in Sweden

Mercur Solutions AB
Vretenvägen 13, SE-171 54 Solna
+46 (0)-459 69 00

 

Malmo Office

Stortorget 3, SE-211 22 Malmö
 

Gothenburg

Västra Hamngatan 21, SE-411 17 Göteborg

Mercur Solutions

A Swedish company with 50 years of experience, delivering solutions for performance management and business intelligence.

 

 

 

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