Good morning. Will Daniel here, taking over for Sheryl Estrada today.
AI is already automating increasingly difficult tasks and augmenting humans’ abilities, but soon, experts say it will uncover new miracle cures and make personal robots a reality, enabling a global productivity boom.
I’m sure you’ve heard all this AI hype before—every C-suite executive is certainly aware of AI’s potential to change the world. However, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of how new generative AI tools actually work and the best ways to implement them, it seems many business leaders are behind the ball.
It’s not that executives aren’t implementing AI, they definitely are. Some 54% of CFOs said they plan to use AI to automate tasks previously done by employees in the Richmond Federal Reserve’s May CFO Survey, which features 2,200 execs from across the U.S. And 65% of CFOs said they are actively deploying AI in some capacity in a recent Billtrust survey of 375 U.S. CFOs from various sectors.
The only problem is that only 49% of CFOs told Billtrust they were “very knowledgeable” about Gen AI, and 34% said they believe it will be the next generation of leaders that fully implements it.
The situation is even worse when you begin to talk to CFOs about using AI in finance. Some 58% of CFOs admitted that they understand “very little” about AI in finance in SAP’s January survey of financial leaders, while only 4% said they have a “strong” grasp of the subject.
As SAP’s researchers put it in their report: “CFOs are pushing ahead with deploying AI, but admit their knowledge is highly limited.”
It’s not entirely surprising that there seems to be an AI knowledge gap in the C-suite. After all, that same knowledge gap is evident at all levels of nearly every field as professionals worldwide attempt to catch up with the rapid pace of technological development. But with many CFOs taking charge of rolling out AI tools for their companies, it may be time for a crash course in tech for the C-suite. Certainly it’s a huge selling point if a CFO is “AI forward”—just look at the the recent rise in CFO job postings with AI knowledge requirements.
As Jonathan Marciano, director of communications at the software firm Datarails, told Fortune’s Sheryl Estrada last month: “The future belongs to those CFOs who can seamlessly integrate artificial intelligence with emotional intelligence, forging a new paradigm of finance leadership that is both data-driven and deeply human."
Will Daniel
will.daniel@fortune.com
