Automation
Fintech

Auditoria.AI Finds Automation Is No Longer Be a “Nice to Have”

AUDITORIA.AI, a provider of natural language technologies for corporate finance, has announced the results of the third-annual State of Automation in the Finance Office report. The Future of Finance Has Arrived: 2022 State of Automation in the Finance Office Report revealed that corporate finance must step up to embrace automation or risk employee burnout, turnover, and ultimately a decrease in bottom-line results for the organisation.

“The results of the 2022 State of Automation Report speak for themselves – corporate finance must embrace automation or risk getting left behind,” said Rohit Gupta, CEO and co-founder, Auditoria. “The majority of the corporate enterprise have not only adopted advanced analytics and technology solutions to streamline every part of their processes, but they have also utilised the additional time to their advantage to focus on higher-level business priorities. With advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and prescriptive analytics, corporate finance can dramatically accelerate their digital transformation efforts.”

Auditoria surveyed more than 650 US-based financial professionals in spring 2022, with titles ranging from Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to Finance Specialist. Key results include:

  • Finance is ready to embrace automation. Most respondents (61.8 per cent) don’t feel their finance back office is sufficiently automated. However, 21.2 per cent of respondents say they will implement advanced levels of analytics and reporting in the next year – a clear indication that corporate finance is ready to embrace automation.
  • Repetitive manual tasks overrun corporate finance. Time spent on manual or repetitive tasks is the biggest challenge in the finance office, followed closely by time spent checking and updating data. Accounts payable and receivable were ranked as having the most manual work for the third year in a row.
  • Bots are needed to help with customer and vendor inquiries and engagement. One-fifth (21.3 per cent) of respondents indicated that a lack of responsiveness is the most significant pain point in the finance back office, suggesting intelligent engagement is needed to send reminders,  answer inquiries and handle requests without manual human intervention.
  • Streamlined processes would kick-start an automation journey. Focusing on process improvements and investing in new technologies to improve said processes are the top two priorities for the finance back-office next year. Both are necessary for finance professionals wanting to implement artificial intelligence and digitise corporate finance.

These results indicate that automation is here to stay. Without change, corporate finance teams that maintain the status quo are at risk of organisational turmoil – from a lack of employee retention to the bottom-line results impacted by the volume of manual work that takes up the majority of time in the corporate finance office. Moreover, intelligent software applications that automate and independently execute business processes and tasks, are fast becoming the norm in today’s hybrid work environment.

Author

  • Polly is a journalist, content creator and general opinion holder from North Wales. She has written for a number of publications, usually hovering around the topics of fintech, tech, lifestyle and body positivity.

Related posts

Asian Financial Forum: A Look Back Over Day One

Tyler Pathe

ITIDA and Visa Support Egyptian Fintech Startups With Mentorship Programme

The Fintech Times

Canadian Fintech Firms Set Sights on the UK

Mark Walker