Finance automation is a big deal now.
Actually such a big deal that finance automation is the new big data.
And big data is quite new.
I believe the most important role of finance has always been, and will always be, one thing:
To bridge the gap between the the numbers and the people who need to make decisions based on the numbers.
The more data we have the bigger that gap gets.
And I believe the single best way to bridge that gap is to bring numbers to life and tell stories with your numbers.
Finance automation and AI will be able to bridge that gap at a logical level, pretty soon.
It will change the face of finance forever.
Of course there will be a transition.
I expect it to be faster than anyone wants to believe, but that’s just my personal view. I could well be wrong.
So what does it mean for finance?
The key for me has always been relationships and emotion.
AI can handle the logic better than any human can.
But all the time there are humans involved in decisions, then relationships and emotion rules.
One day maybe that will change.
In which case it’s probably game over for us all.
The best finance people of the past, present and future all have one thing in common.
They know how to balance logic and emotion to influence decisions.
They appreciate that winning minds with logic is important.
But winning hearts with emotion is the game-changer.
And those finance people will continue to be in demand.
They will use finance automation and AI to their advantage to deliver the logic better and quicker than ever before.
And they will stand in front of other real people, and bring that logic to life with emotion.
They will bridge the gap between the data/AI and the decisions that need to be taken.
So the question is not so much what impact will finance automation and AI have.
The question is can you win people’s hearts today?
Because if you can’t then you’ve got a bit of time to learn before the machines take over the logic for you.
Not much though, so get on it 🙂