By Edward Vorley, Consultant,
FP&A Appointments (EU)

 

Wherever you’ve been in the past two or three years – it's been almost impossible to escape or avoid the increasing discussion, excitement and hype around the advent of AI, writes Camino Search's C-1 consultant, Edward Vorley.

 

I speak to thousands of people – candidates and clients - each year from across the PE finance ecosystem and, unsurprisingly, there’s significant chatter around AI within the finance function, too.

 

At the moment, in the FP&A portion of the finance function, there’s significant interest from the potential ‘value-add’ that artificial intelligence can add as a department-level collaborator in a variety of tasks.

 

Whilst ‘machine learning’ and automation is not new in the finance function – the spotlight on true ‘artificial intelligence’ supporting business operations, is well discussed. 

 

Due to the immense popularity and rhetoric around productization and revenue opportunities from AI, earlier in June, we held our second global webinar for 200 CFOs, attending from across four continents.

 

We discussed AI and SaaS pricing and increasing revenue multiples - it was a follow on with go-to pricing expert, Marcos Rivera, who also wrote about the very same topic in the third issue of our Global Report. 

 

 

Whether it’s your personal helper or a professional ‘secret weapon’, using AI matters in 2025 – regardless of whether you’re working in go-to-market, operations, or finance.

 

And that got me thinking... how is AI being deployed into the FP&A segment of the finance function right now and what will this mean for people?

 

I’ve noticed from recent conversations that executives are somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer volume of AI products available.

 

And that’s reflected in the fact that the AI market is projected to grow from $245bn in 2025 to over $1tn by 2031, yet the sprint to choose the right solution is only just beginning (Source: marketresearch.com)

 

From talking to CFOs, Finance Directors and FP&A leaders, they’re telling me that AI offers value in three key ways, in and around the finance function, such as:

 

·       Automation & Efficiency – Far from Excel drudgery, AI offers the potential to handle routine tasks—freeing your finance team to focus on strategy

 

 

·       Customer Experience – AI enables real-time forecasting and variance analysis, improving responsiveness. AI can assist with ‘PIC’ reduction in the product acquisition phase, lower cost-to-service (CTS) metrics by acting as a first-line facilitator for customers and your support teams, which in tern can lower Opex costs and increase margins and profitability

 

 

·       Data-Driven Decisions – When used and deployed correctly, AI can assist to ensure financial data is accurate and insightful—dramatically improving forecast reliability.

 

 

 

I recently asked Rishi Verma, Director of FP&A at Agilio software, for his thoughts on the potential relationship between FP&A and AI. 

 

“Early sentiments reflect traditional AI is where the power is, such as: driving efficiency from spotting anomalies and patterns ensuring accuracy as well as strengthening cash management through automated emails for overdue payments / cash collections,” Rishi, said.

 

“Generative AI is in the early stages of adaption and moving at such a pace resulting in a risk being left behind. Here, AI agents can predict more on qualitative insights.

 

“For example - upsell rates, churn or future forecasting renewals by using historical customer behaviour, usage patterns, etc. Despite the pace of AI, the accuracy is contingent on consistent and standardised data to feed it.

 

“Often, businesses operate with inconsistent data and require manual overlays to ensure reporting accuracy. However, there is no doubt there is a focus on AI to provide FP&A efficiency and be its ‘wingman’ in the near future.”

 

Looking across the web and diving into the AI usage case in finance functions regarding FP&A usages; Just 23% of FP&A professionals currently use AI—though nearly 40% are testing it, and another 40% plan to implement within a year, according to the Association of Finance Professionals’ benchmarking report for 2025 (Source: Association of Finance Professionals).

 

And Workday also reports that AI adoption in autonomous forecasting, planning, scenario modelling, and strategic support is now a top priority for CFOs across industries, with more and more people beginning to adopt its capabilities.

 

These trends show AI is not optional for FP&A, it’s actually working its way into the finance department as an essential forecasting tool, supporting FP&A teams in their essential tasks.

 

I advise many clients who already use FP&A tools like Pigment, which are adopting AI agents across core FP&A processes; analysis, planning, and modeling, delivering autonomous FP&A, financial visibility, forecast accuracy and ‘what if’ modelling.

 

The Bottom Line is, AI isn’t a 'tech fad'—it’s starting to play a transformative role in finance and early adopters are reaping significant time and cost savings.

 

From discussions I've had, the appetite for AI in the FP&A portion of the finance function appears to be increasing.

 

From a people and hiring perspective, it pays for CFOs and finance leaders either looking to embed AI into their finance functions, or those already using AI, to consider training and hiring FP&A professionals to become familiar with [or are already familiar with] AI-supported finance tools.

 

Whilst we are still in the advent of what AI can achieve and deliver with some companies still aiming to adopt artificial intelligence into the finance function, it’s becoming more looking more likely that FP&A professionals will need to work alongside AI in their day-to-day routines to oversee and support with essential tasks.

 

Notwithstanding the fact that most AI, whilst supporting some key functional initiatives, still needs efficiency reviews to sense-check accuracy and output – the human element to do this is still an essential requirement - This is a message repeated amongst finance professionals I speak to.

 

AI is clearly a supportive tool for FP&A professionals, assisting with a variety of ‘heavy-lifting' capabilities. But whilst it might just be the ‘wingman’ finance teams can look to implement moving forwards, there’s still very much a requirement for FP&A teams to supervise and critique AI’s output for the sake of accuracy.