“Reimagine Finance Performance With Gen AI” – new study by The Hackett Group

The global consulting firm The Hackett Group recently published the study “Reimagine Finance Performance With Gen AI” and shows how top finance organizations are using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to improve business performance.

The Hackett ^Group®, defines Digital World ^Class® (DWC) for finance organizations as follows: DWC companies are in the TOP quartile globally for business value and operational excellence. DWC finance teams work with 45 percent lower process costs, deliver better strategic analyses 74 percent faster and generate 57 percent faster and more valid forecasts than the peer group. At the same time, they invest far less time in data collection and evaluation.

Georg Bach, Hackett Managing Director Central Europe at The Hackett Group, sees “(Gen)AI as a groundbreaking possibility and opportunity to decisively optimize and realign work processes, which is crucial for increasing the competitiveness of companies in the short to medium term in view of the current dramatic economic and geopolitical upheavals”.

The study, which is based on around three hundred company surveys and comprehensive international benchmarks (around a third of which are European and German companies), identifies

six steps that are essential for the effective implementation of (Gen)AI strategies:

• Service design: Core processes must be set up in such a way that largely independent and self-running (agentic) workflows are possible.
• Technology: Replacing outdated systems, using cloud tools, using (Gen)AI for better reporting, forecasting and analytics.
• Human capital: training and developing employees for AI, creating a corporate climate conducive to innovation.
• Analytics and information management: Ensure company-wide data governance and control. Data foundation must be AI-capable.
• Service partnering: Outsource transactional tasks as far as possible, focus employee talent on strategy and involve AI experts.
• Organization and governance: Reduce hierarchies, establish AI centers of excellence, implement cross-functional end-to-end service models.

“Digital World ^Class® Finance organizations become valuable strategic partners in the company through the use of (Gen)AI,” explains Georg Bach. “This takes corporate planning and decision-making to a previously unattainable level.”

Click here to download the study: Reimagine Finance Performance With Gen AI