How does AI change the role of finance?

I think AI can definitely have a meaningful role within finance.

There are efficiencies for repetitive tasks, absolutely.

I think ultimately, though, if you start to think about business impact, as I

talked about before, how can I get faster insights?

Our business is changing, our world's changing.

There's external factors that are changing.

Can I use AI to give me faster insights?

Can I use AI to do more continuous planning?

So my ability to run scenarios more quickly, take in the latest factor that

has changed, is really going to help ultimately in decision-making.

So I think it's a great opportunity.

I think FP&A teams, finance teams have a seat at the table, which is really

important. Now we've got this tool that if used correctly and used properly, can

really go help accelerate the scenario planning, the future-looking

outcomes, and help us make better decisions.

If we think about using AI at scale and confidently using it at scale, I would say

it's a little bit of a work in process, honestly, in terms of a confidence level

for me. I'm confident that we have good oversight right now in terms of how we

manage it, but that needs to continue.

How do we continue to have transparency on what the models are doing?

Can I trace it back? That concept of auditability.

Do I really know where those answers are coming from?

If it's an analyst, I can sit down with that analyst and I can have the

conversation and I can test those assumptions. How can I do that?

I need to make sure I can do that within the models.

And then I also need to make sure that there's governance around it, as I talked

about. So some combination of the models with humans is going to

continue, I think in my mind, to be the model for a while. But that's not enough.

Just like any good finance organization, I think you have to test your assumptions.

You have to make sure that you're thinking about all of the downside risks of using

it, and make sure that you're not ignoring those.

And I think if you continue to do that and if you're diligent, then I have

confidence that we can go use it in a way that can be a real scalable tool that

will really help the organization.