New AI skillset required as treasurers look to future
Artificial intelligence will change the treasury function, but the department must get up to speed
Artificial intelligence will change the treasury function, but the department must get up to speed
As the role of the treasury changes and new emerging technologies are incorporated into the sector’s software, new skills will be needed at the front end, according to Kevin Permenter, research manager of enterprise applications, IDC.
“As AI becomes more important and more pervasive, there’s going to be a need for a new skillset for the treasurer. Being able to look under the hood, so to speak, and understand what the AI is doing and why it did what it did,” Permenter said, speaking at Kyriba Live in Las Vegas, last week.
“It’s going to be incumbent upon the vendors to provide that access, but it’s also the treasurer’s responsibility and the organisation’s responsibility to get someone in there that understands a little bit about AI and data science. Data science maybe becomes a secondary skill set that you’d like to look for. Whereas before, it’s probably more much more about hard finance.”
A 2019 report conducted by Deloitte reported that only 15 percent of firms are educating or looking for treasurers that have knowledge in big data and machine learning.
Permenter also pointed out that technology can assist with one of treasury’s greatest headaches: cash management.
“Cash management is the ability to provide large companies with visibility to their accounts.
“Finding the capital, and being able to accurately say ‘Okay, we can do this ourselves without going to an expensive bank is a powerful thing’”, Permenter said. “That’s the new world that the treasurer is in now, much more strategic, less bean counting.”
In the Deloitte report, 84 percent of CFOs said they see treasury as both a critically important strategic advisor and as an access point to capital markets.
Despite the rapidly changing role and the emergence of new technologies within treasury, Permenter said the treasury space is slow moving. “There is an older mentality, more traditional mentality. There was a reluctance, maybe even going back a little further to the move to cloud. Five to seven years ago, security was the main hinderance to adopting to cloud. Now it’s more about a benefits discussion.”
There is a plethora of new technologies that allow for greater cash visibility and faster payments but much of that technology is not well understood. “There’s a disconnect between the use of emerging technologies and the extent to which people understand those technologies,” Permenter said.
Also in the Deloitte report, two thirds of firms indicated they are not currently using machine learning, while 64 percent are not using big data.
“For example, we just talked about the importance of cash forecasting and budgeting, and predictive forecasting. All that is not possible without AI and machine learning. Being able to get your data in and out of a solution like Kyriba, and over to your ERP seamlessly, quickly or in real time. That’s not possible without advanced APIs.
“But you can’t have that discussion about APIs, neural networks and cognitive computing, because no [treasurer] here cares about that. That’s not what they’re here for”, Permenter said. “There’s this sort of balancing act that you have to do, where you have to talk about your investment in things like micro services and cognitive computing. You also have to balance that with the fact that [treasurers] don’t really care about that they just want outcome.”
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