The three big things that seem to come into everyone’s daily lives currently are technology, finance and artificial intelligence. These three models have interestingly enough actually merged over the past few years and now, artificial intelligence is being leveraged in modern financial decision-making. Where two decades ago, balancing physical accounting sheets was the norm and practice, then a decade ago, using digital accounting software was commonplace, now, artificial intelligence has made its appearance in modern financial ways of business.
This article aims to dive into the role of artificial intelligence in the way that private users and businesses, primarily, make decisions surrounding finances. It will first briefly outline artificial intelligence, then shed light on how AI has become integral to modern-day finances and look at some of the features that you can find on AI tools. So, without further ado, it’s time to jump in.
A Quick Dive Into Artificial Intelligence
A big development over the past few years has been artificial intelligence or otherwise known by its acronym, AI. A lot of people think they know what this is but not many have ever actually researched it.
Seeing as it forms the basis of this article, it’s important to quickly note that AI is a technology that essentially gives machines the ability to mimic human intelligence. There’s been a lot of debate as to how accurate this ‘mimic nature’ is, with a lot of people outlining that AI supports human intelligence in a way that improves it. It is often used for understanding and solving problems, with emphasis on the word solving. This is where finance comes into play, as many people want to leverage AI to help solve any sort of financial queries or challenges they might have.
How AI Has Made a Name for Itself in Finance
One of the biggest ways that AI has managed to integrate itself into the financial world is through creating powerful finance tools. These tools essentially help the individuals who are in charge of the finance section of a business, to assemble, understand and accumulate data that is a lot more accurate than what they can summarise themselves. The whole idea of these AI tools in finance is to assist finance teams in making better decisions based on actual events.
There are a few different AI tools out there, so if you are a business looking to leverage the power of AI finance tools, it’s crucial that you pick ones that have been around for a while, are authoritative and potentially also have good reviews, as this means that other businesses have had a productive time using these tools. You could look at datarails or vena solutions, which are tools primarily used for financial planning, analysis and sales performance management. It’s excellent when it comes to budgeting and forecasting, understanding tax provisions and even workforce planning.
A lot of these AI power finance tools have different nuanced benefits and features, so it’s important that you pick the one that suits the needs of your business best. Speaking of features, the main features that you should look for will be outlined below.
Key Features of AI Finance Tools
Some of the best AI tools have these key features:
- User-friendly dashboards: you might think that dashboards are the norm, not something very inventive or creative, however, you’d be surprised how many finance platforms out there have awful dashboards that don’t allow you to truly understand or see what and how your business is doing. You need one that allows you to visualize data in a way that works for how you and your team understand information.
- Predictive analytics: the whole point of AI tools is to potentially forecast how your finances as a business are going to look, how the market that you find yourself will develop and how users are currently engaging with your products and services. By leveraging data, these AI tools can offer predictive analytics that you can use to enhance your operations.
- Accounting measures: some of the AI power tools will allow you to not only summarise and manage your finances but also communicate directly on invoices, meaning that you can collaborate within the finance team and share more transparency.
- Real-time data: one of the most useful tools of AI is that it’s constantly learning and upgrading. This means that it’s also constantly moving forward on a 24/7 system. This means that your data is constantly being looked at and your analysis is always being changed depending on the data coming in. This real-time data can allow you to make quick and spontaneous decisions, based on more facts than ever before.
Has AI Taken Over?
A lot of people might say that AI has taken over. However, from the above, it is clear to see that it’s not that AI has taken over but rather that it’s created an environment in which professionals, especially from the finance team, can navigate to leverage AI in a way that reduces their workload dramatically.
Naturally, a lot of the admin tasks have been obsolete, since AI can fill in a lot of the basic blanks, however, the real decision-making still lies within human intelligence. But, with the information handed to these individuals through AI tools, decision-making has potentially become a lot more powerful.
