Your First AI Hire Should be in Finance

When most business owners think about AI, they usually start with marketing. Content creation. Social media. Customer service. Sales outreach.

And while AI can certainly add value in all of those areas, I increasingly believe that most SMEs are looking in the wrong place.

If you’re going to make your first meaningful investment in AI, your first “AI hire” should probably be in finance.

That might sound surprising coming from someone who spends a lot of time helping businesses think about their finance function.

But it’s a conclusion I’ve arrived at through an unusual combination of experiences.

My conviction that AI would have a significant impact on finance comes from the convergence of three experiences: developing a foundation in data-driven decision-making at Morgan Stanley, deepening my understanding of the CFO’s role through Columbia Business School’s CFO Program, and studying the practical application of AI through Northwestern Kellogg’s AI Program.

Together, they reinforced a simple belief: finance is one of the most natural homes for AI because its core purpose is transforming information into better business decisions.

The interesting thing is this:

The businesses generating the most immediate value from AI are rarely starting with marketing.

They’re starting with finance.

Why Finance Is the Perfect Environment for AI

Most business functions contain a mixture of structured and unstructured work.

Marketing involves creativity.

Sales involves human relationships.

Operations often involve physical processes.

Finance is different.

Much of the finance function revolves around structured information, repeatable workflows, and measurable outcomes.

• Invoices.

• Purchase orders.

• Bank transactions.

• Financial reports.

• Cash flow forecasts.

• Management accounts.

This makes finance an ideal environment for AI.

The technology doesn’t need to understand human emotion or create breakthrough ideas.

It simply needs to process information faster, identify patterns, and automate repetitive tasks.

That’s where AI excels.

The Finance Team Doesn’t Need More Headcount

Many growing businesses eventually reach the same point.

The business expands.

Transaction volumes increase.

Reporting requirements become more complex.

The finance team becomes stretched.

Historically, the answer was straightforward:

Hire another bookkeeper.

Hire another finance analyst.

Hire another accounts payable clerk.

Today, there’s another option.

Before adding headcount, businesses should ask:

“What would happen if we gave our existing team an AI-powered colleague?”

Not to replace people.

To multiply their effectiveness.

The best finance leaders aren’t using AI to reduce headcount.

They’re using AI to increase capacity.

Where AI Delivers Immediate Value

The most successful implementations tend to focus on four areas.

1. Accounts Payable

Invoice processing remains surprisingly manual in many businesses.

Invoices arrive by email.

Data is entered into accounting systems.

Approvals are routed manually.

Payments are scheduled.

Modern AI-powered platforms can automate much of this workflow, reducing processing time while improving accuracy.

2. Management Reporting

Many finance teams spend days every month preparing reports.

Gathering data.

Creating commentary.

Explaining variances.

AI can dramatically reduce the time required to produce management reporting while helping identify trends and anomalies that deserve attention.

3. Cash Flow Forecasting

Cash flow remains one of the biggest risks facing SMEs.

AI tools can analyze payment patterns, supplier obligations, seasonality, and historical trends to create more dynamic forecasts.

The objective isn’t perfect prediction.

It’s earlier visibility.

4. Accounts Receivable

Late payments create pressure on working capital.

AI can help prioritize collections, identify emerging payment risks, and improve debtor management.

For many businesses, improving collections delivers a greater financial impact than reducing costs.

The Real Opportunity Isn’t Cost Reduction

This is where many discussions about AI go wrong. The conversation immediately turns to labor savings.

But the biggest opportunity isn’t reducing costs.

It’s improving decision quality.

A finance function that can produce better information, faster, allows leaders to make better decisions.

Which customers are most profitable?

Which products generate the strongest margins?

Where is cash likely to become constrained?

What investments should be prioritized?

The finance team has always been responsible for answering these questions.

AI simply allows them to answer them more effectively.

Think of AI as a New Team Member

When clients ask me where they should start with AI, I often suggest a simple mental model.

Imagine you could hire a highly capable analyst who:

• Never gets tired

• Reads thousands of documents instantly

• Produces reports in seconds

• Identifies patterns across large datasets

• Costs a fraction of a traditional hire

Where would you put that person?

For most SMEs, the answer is finance.

Not because finance is the only area where AI can create value.

But because it’s often the place where value is easiest to measure and fastest to realize.

The Future Finance Function

The finance teams that thrive over the next decade won’t necessarily be the largest.

They’ll be the ones that combine strong financial expertise with intelligent use of technology.

The role of finance is evolving from reporting what happened to helping shape what happens next.

AI is accelerating that transition.

The businesses that embrace it early won’t just operate more efficiently.

They’ll make better decisions.

And better decisions ultimately create better businesses.