According to a report from the Financial Times (FT), business schools are incorporating AI-related curricula in response to the growing interest in the technology. A survey conducted by education consultant CarringtonCrisp across 40 countries found that nearly half of the respondents expect to learn about artificial intelligence (AI) within the next five years. The introduction of tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT has led companies to explore generative AI, leading to an increased demand for courses on the subject in business schools. Annette Saller, the director of program and project management at German medical equipment maker Hartmann Group, expressed her desire to gain a comprehensive understanding of AI that goes beyond the hype. She emphasized that AI involves much more than just generating text and images, and hopes to demystify the technology through her studies. This trend is occurring at a time when generative AI tools and automated machine learning (ML) solutions are disrupting various industries and transforming the way businesses operate. As a result, finance leaders are urged to become more agile and play a more strategic role in planning and forecasting.

As James Ritter, then CFO at ABBYY, noted, AI is changing the operational relationship between systems and people, requiring individuals who can provide critical analysis rather than focusing on data entry-type tasks. The CFOs of today, such as Kevin Held from Hazeltree, have evolved from being merely "bean counters" to becoming business partners. They now take on responsibilities such as enhancing transparency in cash flow and addressing strategic needs beyond cost reduction and expense management. While tools like ChatGPT may be exciting for consumers, cautious CFOs tend to avoid their full integration due to concerns about data-sharing and corporate privacy. Instead, finance teams rely on AI tools specific to their organizations, trained on internal data, to inform and optimize process transformations. To stay updated on AI-related news and developments, you can subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter from PYMNTS.