Introducing AI to corporate financial management allows companies to abandon manual spreadsheets and build automated data pipelines.
Corporate treasury departments are facing pressure from market volatility, regulatory demands, and digital finance requirements. Ashish Kumar, head of Oracle sales for North America at Infosys, and CM Grover, CEO of IBS FinTech, recently discussed the realities of corporate finance.
IBS FinTech has been operating for 19 years and is currently ranked among the top five in the world according to IDC reports. Grover points out that while AI-powered automation is permeating many areas of corporate life, finance departments often still rely on manual spreadsheets.
“IBS FinTech identified a gap in corporate CFO offices where their most critical information system, financial management, was managed in Excel,” Glover said.
Finance teams manage cash, liquidity, and risk. Companies face foreign currency risks through imports and exports, along with associated commodity risks. Companies with excess cash also need to invest in their operations to generate profits.
The main problem for many businesses is the lack of real-time data connectivity. Teams often execute trades on platforms like Bloomberg, Reuters, or 360D, manually enter data into spreadsheets, and post accounting entries to enterprise resource planning systems.
Successful implementation of AI in corporate financial management
The adoption of AI in finance will depend on solving these manual bottlenecks. Business leaders often view this technology as a fast solution, but it requires digitized and automated data as a foundation.
“The way we can do AI in the Treasury is not by talking,” Glover said. “We need to create underlying datasets that need to be digitized and automated.”
By integrating financial management systems with existing enterprise resource planning platforms, companies can establish this data foundation. Since its inception, IBS FinTech has built its backend on an Oracle database and now integrates with Oracle Cloud, NetSuite, and Fusion.
A connected ecosystem requires financial management systems to communicate directly with enterprise resource planning platforms, trading platforms, and banks. This integration provides executives with accurate information to manage liquidity, reduce risk, and monitor system-wide compliance violations.
Glover expects global volatility to increase due to geopolitical and economic factors affecting commodities, stocks, and foreign exchange. Business leaders must prioritize automation and real-time information systems to operate in this uncertain environment.
Kumar pointed out that using AI to modernize financial management and connecting it to enterprise resource planning systems will strengthen financial resilience. Business leaders need to audit their existing data workflows. If finance teams rely on manual input between trading platforms and enterprise resource planning platforms, AI efforts will fail due to poor data quality.
Implementing direct integration ensures error-free, real-time data flow and provides the necessary baseline for future technology deployments.
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