AI Won’t Save You From Bad Data: Why Finance Leaders Must Act Now
Don't let messy spreadsheets derail your AI transformation. Discover how clean, integrated data is the true foundation for success.
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Imagine this: it’s month-end, your FP&A team is buried under mountains of spreadsheets, pivot tables have become your mortal enemy, and your trusty analyst is on their third coffee-fueled meltdown of the day. Sound familiar? Now, picture a world where artificial intelligence (AI) swoops in like a spreadsheet superhero, lifting the burden of repetitive tasks, delivering razor-sharp forecasts, and making you look like the strategic genius you always knew you were. Welcome to the brave new world of AI in FP&A.
Why the AI Buzz? (And Why You Should Care)
Let’s face it, traditional FP&A methods are struggling to keep pace. Your business generates more data than Netflix has shows – seriously – and manually crunching these numbers just won’t cut it anymore. AI is not a shiny gimmick; it’s your ticket to staying relevant, responsive, and ridiculously accurate.
Since the beginning of time, finance teams have been challenged to achieve faster month-end closes and better forecasts. But, despite our best efforts, we don’t seem to be making much headway. GrowCFO surveys have shown that few businesses close month-end before workday 5; for many, it’s workday 10 or later.
Better processes and good data are the keys to unlocking change. Good data will allow for an earlier close, which allows FP&A to forecast the new month rather than analyse the old one.
Is AI going to bring us the tools that will finally make a difference? At GrowCFO, we believe that AI is going to be the game-changer that allows reporting time to be slashed.
Strategic Perks You'll Actually Love
AI isn’t just cool tech; it’s a CFO’s best friend. Here’s why:
- Forecasts that Impress Your CEO: Machine learning-powered forecasts leave manual methods in the dust, delivering predictions so accurate, you’ll feel psychic.
- Real-time Insights (Without Sleepless Nights): AI tools analyze massive data instantly, providing actionable insights faster than your morning espresso brews.
- Cost Savings You’ll Actually See: Automating mundane FP&A tasks frees up your team’s valuable brainpower, saving money and reducing analyst burnout – no more midnight spreadsheet marathons!
Data Quality: Avoiding the Garbage In, Garbage Out Trap
Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room – data quality. AI may seem magical, but feed it garbage data, and you’ll get garbage results. Poor-quality, inconsistent, or incomplete data is the number one roadblock to effective AI implementation in FP&A. Think of it like baking a cake: if your ingredients are bad, it doesn’t matter how fancy your oven is – the result won’t be tasty. Ensuring your data is clean, accurate, and well-governed should be your top priority. Only then can AI tools deliver reliable insights, predictions, and strategic value.
We took a deep dive into the subject of data quality recently. Derek Villeneuve and Kevin Van Kirk from Acterys, along with Igor Ikonnikov from Info-Tech joined GrowCFO’s, Kevin Appleby, in a webinar, “Is Your Finance Data AI-Ready? Why Messy Data is Costing You Millions”. You can watch a recording here:
https://acterys.com/events/is-your-finance-data-ai-ready-why-messy-data-is-costing-you-millions-on-demand/
Bringing It All Together: Integration, Data Integrity, and Intelligence with Acterys
With its comprehensive write-back functionality, Acterys helps organizations to optimize their existing unstructured data for AI-driven decision-making. Users can input data directly from their familiar tools, with the destination layer updated automatically in real-time. Your data doesn’t just move fast, it lands where it matters. The best part? These technologies integrate seamlessly into the FP&A systems you already know and love. No more data discrepancies, whether you’re using Power BI, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint or Word, everyone sees the same data in real-time.
So, instead of spending hours fixing errors and chasing down numbers, your team has accurate, real-time data at their fingertips for planning and analytics. Acterys quickly becomes their single source of the truth, enabling them to focus on uncovering strategic insights and understanding the real story behind the data.
Real-Life FP&A Heroes
Don’t just take our word for it—here’s Acterys at work:
- Superior Plus Propane – reduced data collection and reporting time from 5 days to just 2 hours
- Strategy First Finance – slashed its reporting time by 75% with Acterys
- Urban Energy – cut project management time by 3 days per week
- myhealth – cut reporting modeling time from 5 days to 1 with Acterys
- American Tire Distributors – deployed Acterys to achieve 50% higher accuracy in labor planning
- Superior Plus Propane – reduced data collection and reporting time from 5 days to just 2 hours
Overcoming AI Anxiety
Of course, diving into AI can feel daunting, like handing over your meticulously maintained spreadsheets to a robot you’ve never met. Here’s how to ease the transition:
- Start small with pilot projects.
- Upskill your team gently – AI literacy, not AI mastery.
- Build trust with transparent tools and clear communication. Your analysts won’t lose their jobs; they’ll lose tedious tasks.
What's Next? (Hint: It's Already Happening)
The FP&A future is bright – and heavily automated. Continuous, real-time planning, AI-driven scenario modeling, and integrated external data are becoming standard. Your role as a CFO or finance analyst isn’t shrinking – it’s expanding into strategic advising, business partnering, and yes, becoming the superhero your business always needed.
Delivering on all these aspects becomes so much easier when you embrace AI-driven FP&A. Finance leaders who aspire to drive agility and strategic insight in their organizations should take a close look at solutions like Acterys. In an era where real-time data and AI are competitive differentiators, relying on legacy spreadsheets or fragmented tools is a risk no CFO can afford.
Acterys Planning Intelligence empowers CFOs and finance leaders with a centralized platform for modern financial planning, analysis and decision-making. The platform supports the Office of the CFO with its AI-driven insights engine that enables the finance team to fully leverage AI for greater productivity and impact across the organization. When decision-makers experience how Acterys can enter and manipulate data directly within AI, it’s transformational.
Acterys brings your financial data, predictive analytics, and real-time insights together to streamline key processes such as budgeting, forecasting and scenario planning. With its ability to discover actionable AI-powered insights, Acterys empowers finance teams to uncover trends, mitigate risks, and enable data-driven strategies that enhance performance, efficiency and speed in decision-making.
So are you ready to unlock the power of your data with AI? The AI-ready Acterys Planning Intelligence platform ensures your data is structured and optimized to maximize your AI investments for years to come. Acterys is your all in one solution for smart write-back, planning, and AI-driven success.
Don’t let your organization fall behind in the data-driven future. Take action – explore Acterys through a demo or pilot, and see first-hand how it can transform your FP&A into a faster, smarter, and more confident operation. Your next budget cycle – and your future self – will thank you for it.
So, why wait? Embrace AI, make your team happier, forecasts sharper, and watch as the rest of your business marvels at your newfound finance superpowers. After all, spreadsheets can’t do it alone – but Acterys and AI sure can.
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