The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1: CFO thinking around generative AI is long term
At the forefront of technology development, a large majority of CFOs believe AI and generative AI will create value for finance departments.
McKinsey surveyed 126 CFOs and respondents were asked about ways that these technologies will be valuable in the next five years, 85% of the CFOs cited “creating insights that reduce manual analysis.” About the same proportion (83%) pointed to “improving employees’ productivity.” Fewer (58%) selected “using more existing data to inform business decisions,” while just 26% said “decreasing risks (i.e., through improved controls).”
As for the types of generative AI applications that will be most useful over the next five years, the winner was strategy leadership and support, followed by general accounting and controls.
However, at present, only one in five CFOs reported the use of generative AI tools, and among those, almost half said they are in the pilot and experimentation phase.
That’s a missed opportunity because CFOs who have already adopted gen AI tools report the same kinds of advantages that other finance chiefs believe they will realize eventually.
Many have seen improved employee productivity (71%), improved use of existing data to inform business decisions (54%), creation of insights that reduce manual analysis (48%), and decreased risks (25%).
According to McKinsey, the trends suggest that many CFOs are taking a longer-term view these days. “CFOs can, and need to, be front and center in helping their companies navigate the current environment by balancing short-term management with long-term value creation,” McKinsey wrote.
— David McCann
Part 2: This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Tuesday, July 30
- S&P Case-Shiller home price index (20 cities)
- Consumer confidence
- United States Sentate Committee on Finance hearing on tax tools for local economic development
Wednesday July 31
- July ADP employment
- Q2 Employment cost index
- FOMC interest-rate decision/Fed Chair Powel press conference
Thursday, August 1
- Initial jobless claims
- Q2 U.S. productivity
- June construction spending
Friday, August 2
- July’s U.S. employment report
- July’s U.S. unemployment rate
- July’s U.S. hourly wages
Part 3: July earnings and Q&A with GENCFO founder
This week, reporter Adam Zaki will publish a July earnings update, as well as a Q&A with Christopher Argent, founder of the CFO leadership community GENCFO. Zaki and Argent discuss his organization’s strategy on staying unique, how a CFO networking group provides value, traits he’s noticed among successful CFOs in his network and more. (7/30 and 8/1, respectively.)
