The Reality of AI in the
Finance Department
There is a lot of noise about artificial intelligence at the moment. Some of it is genuinely exciting. Some of it is, frankly, overblown. And if you are a CEO or senior leader in a Students’ Union or charity, you could be forgiven for wondering what any of it actually means for the people running your finances day to day.
Let me offer a straightforward take. AI is not about to replace your finance team. But used well, it can make them significantly more effective. The question is whether your team is using it as a smarter tool or just a faster shortcut.
What AI can genuinely help with
I have been working with finance teams for over 35 years. The problems I see most often are not about effort. They are about structure. Reporting that does not quite make sense. Spreadsheets that only one person truly understands. Processes that have grown organically rather than been designed. That is where AI starts to become interesting.
Here are some practical examples where I have seen it make a real difference:
Finance staff spend a surprising amount of time trying to construct complex Excel formulas. AI tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot can build those formulas from plain English descriptions. You describe what you need; the tool writes the formula. This is genuinely useful and saves real time.
Tools like Power Automate can take repetitive manual tasks e.g. sending payment reminders, routing approval requests, distributing reports and run them automatically. AI can now help you set those flows up, even if you have never done it before. You describe the process; it helps you build it.
Finance reports often need a written narrative alongside the numbers. AI can produce a solid first draft quickly, based on the data you give it. It still needs a human to check it and add judgement. But it gets you most of the way there much faster.
The problem AI cannot solve for you
Here is where I want to be honest with you, because I think it matters.
AI is very good at making things faster. It is less good at making things better unless the person using it understands the difference.
I have spent a long time helping organisations unpick finance systems that accumulated rather than being designed. Processes that nobody quite remembers the origin of. Reports that produce numbers but not understanding. When AI comes into that environment, it can accelerate the wrong things just as easily as the right ones.
If your team uses AI to build a faster version of a broken spreadsheet, you still have a broken spreadsheet. Just a quicker one.
The Real Question
The real question is not ‘can AI do this?’ It is ‘should we still be doing this at all?’ That requires someone to step back and think about what the finance function is actually supposed to deliver and whether the current structure supports that. AI does not ask that question. You have to.
A practical starting point
If you are a CEO wondering how to encourage your team to engage with AI sensibly, here are three things worth doing:
The bottom line
AI is a useful tool. In the right hands, in the right environment, it genuinely helps. It will not replace the judgement your finance team brings. It will not design a better chart of accounts for you. And it will not ask the hard question about whether your finance system is actually fit for purpose.
But for a finance officer who is wrestling with a complicated SUMIFS formula at 4pm on a Tuesday? It is a very welcome colleague.
Learn more
Whitegate provides finance and IT consultancy to Students’ Unions, charities and other not-for-profits. Diagnostic reviews, system migrations, interim finance leadership and coaching and training. If you’d like to talk, get in touch.