Finance Leaders View GenAI Crucial for Budget Forecasting: Gartner

Generative AI Elevates Financial Forecasting

A recent Gartner Inc. survey reveals that finance leaders regard generative AI (GenAI) as an invaluable tool for dissecting forecast and budget variances.

Finance leaders employ GenAI to elucidate differences in financial data. Gartner highlights its growing integration within business intelligence tools for rapid analysis.

Gartner’s Clement Christensen notes that embedded GenAI interfaces facilitate natural language queries, swiftly assessing common variance causes.

Wider Impacts on Finance Functions

Conducted in November 2023, the survey gathered insights from 100 finance leaders, delineating GenAI’s expected influence in the coming year.

Leaders anticipate GenAI’s role in revenue classification and management reporting. Recent advancements enable it to generate business hypotheses subjected to statistical testing.

Christensen underscores GenAI’s reliance on large language models, while finance is data-driven. Finance leaders are cautious about GenAI for complex calculations.

Challenges and Implementation Guidance

Despite enthusiasm, finance leaders foresee obstacles. Talents, data accuracy, governance, compatibility, budgeting, and change management are notable concerns.

Christensen advises integrating finance and IT teams early to align intentions and set practical expectations. Evaluating GenAI vendors against organizational demands is vital.

Conducting a data audit, in partnership with data owners, precedes GenAI integration. This ensures data adequacy for efficient AI model operation.

While recognizing GenAI’s potential, reliability, accuracy, cost, and data privacy remain critical considerations.

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