Insights
Ideas for modern finance leaders.
Perspectives on AI, finance transformation, and building teams that deliver lasting change.
95% of Gen AI Initiatives Fail…Yours don’t need to!
MIT research shows most Gen-AI initiatives fail to deliver value. This article highlights three CFO pitfalls: overusing Copilot-style tools, misapplying AI to unsuitable problems, and unstructured experimentation. It stresses selecting the right AI for each use case, building organisational AI literacy, and anchoring all technology decisions in clear business outcomes.
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DNA of A Digital Finance Function (Part 1)
Generative AI is powerful but often overhyped in finance transformation. This article argues traditional machine learning still drives core value by solving inefficiencies like forecasting and process automation. It emphasises balancing both approaches, using generative AI as an enhancement layer to improve insight, analysis, and decision-making across finance functions.
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Data isn't 'the new Oil' - Digital Talent is!
Data is often called the new oil, but its value depends on refinement and skilled talent to extract it. Despite massive data growth and AI investment, most initiatives fail due to a digital skills gap. This article highlights upskilling, certifications, on-the-job learning, and digital mindset as key to unlocking data value.
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Australia’s AI Crisis: The Research-Commercialization Paradox
Australia risks becoming an AI consumer rather than a creator, despite strong research output. Weak commercialisation, underinvestment, and talent shortages limit its global standing. The article calls for sovereign AI investment, increased R&D funding, and national upskilling initiatives to translate research strength into economic value and long-term AI leadership.
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The AI Concorde: A Race Without a Runway
Using Concorde’s rise and fall as a metaphor, this article argues that AI’s rapid advancement is outpacing governance and safety. Through real-world examples of misuse and systemic risks, it calls for stronger oversight, responsible leadership, and safeguards before innovation outruns society’s ability to manage its consequences safely and sustainably together.
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From Budget Battles to Strategic Partnerships
Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT responsibility. This article explores how CFOs and CISOs are becoming strategic partners, collaborating on cyber risk, investment decisions, AI governance, and regulatory compliance. It highlights why finance leaders play a critical role in strengthening resilience, enabling sustainable growth, and managing evolving digital threats.
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The Generative AI Fallacy
Generative AI is struggling to deliver business value due to technological solutionism and leadership misalignment, with many projects failing. This article highlights the need to rethink operating models, treat AI as a leadership challenge rather than a tech issue, and build a strong digital mindset to drive meaningful organisational impact.
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The Silent Killers of the AI Operating Model
AI disruption does not destroy companies, complacency does. This article explores how firms fail due to management inertia, technology solutionism, and poor digital configuration. Through examples like IBM, Kodak, DBS, and Burberry, it highlights how leadership mindset and execution determine whether organisations successfully adapt or fall behind in the AI era.
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Mythos: Why is it time to worry about AI
Anthropic’s unreleased Mythos model highlights a new AI threshold, with PhD-level reasoning and the ability to discover critical security vulnerabilities. This raises serious risks across cybersecurity, misinformation, and social engineering. The article explores real-world dangers and calls for stronger governance, digital literacy, and accountability to manage increasingly powerful AI systems.
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3 Steps for CFOs to Adopt AI in 2025
AI adoption should start with business problems, not technology. This article presents a 3-step approach for finance leaders: AI design sprints to identify priorities, proof-of-concepts to test solutions, and continuous iteration to improve outcomes. It emphasises balancing strategy and execution while using AI as an enabler of real business value.
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2025 - The Year of Agentic AI…or maybe not? (Part 2)
Agentic AI has the potential to transform finance, but success depends on more than technology adoption. This article outlines practical steps for CFOs, including building a digital roadmap, strengthening data foundations, improving processes, and running controlled experiments to prepare finance functions for scalable AI-driven operations.
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2025 - The Year of Agentic AI…or maybe not? (Part 1)
Agentic AI is emerging as the next frontier of artificial intelligence, enabling autonomous systems to solve complex, multi-step business problems with minimal human intervention. This article separates hype from reality, examines real-world examples, and explores what organisations must do today to prepare for meaningful, scalable business impact tomorrow.
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Why every CEO’s future now depends on upskilling the workforce
AI is shifting workforce disruption from job loss to skill-based layoffs, creating a widening digital talent gap. CEOs can no longer rely on tech investment alone. The focus must move to continuous upskilling, learning ecosystems, and AI-ready competency frameworks that preserve institutional knowledge and enable collaboration between people and AI.
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Your AI Is Starving (and Data Products Feed It)
Most organisations still assume data lakes and harmonisation will solve fragmentation, yet AI initiatives continue to stall. The real issue is usability, not storage. This article introduces data products as reusable, governed datasets that power scale. It explains how Customer 360 and financial data products enable consistent, AI-ready foundations for 2026.
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Low-Cost Digital Transformation - A CFO Perspective
In this article, Ashish Agarwal, CFO of Jiva Agriculture, shares how his SME digitally transformed its finance function without a Fortune 500 budget. By starting small, leveraging low/no-code tools, and engaging the team, Jiva improved efficiency, reduced errors, and became a strategic co-pilot to business growth.
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Riding the AI Wave - 5 Priorities for CFOs in 2024
This article outlines five must-win priorities for Finance leaders navigating AI disruption in 2024: building a digital vision and roadmap, optimising existing processes, strengthening cybersecurity and governance, reskilling and retaining talent, and fostering psychological safety, positioning CFOs to harness AI's transformative potential and drive sustainable business growth.
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Embracing the Tech Disruption: A Paradigm Shift in Corporate Finance’s Evolution
Embracing the Tech Disruption: A Paradigm Shift in Corporate Finance’s Evolution
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CFO’s Digital Horizon: Five AI trends to watch in the next 5 Years
Explore what key trends are reshaping the immediate future of finance organizations and what doe sit mean for CFOs to lead in the new age.
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Data Lake
Unification, Harmonization, and Democratization of Data is the North Star for every CFO’s Digital Transformation agenda….and rightly so. It is considered the holy grail of building an Advanced Analytics capability. A global Data Analyst’s survey revealed that 98% of companies today are using Business Intelligence tools for decision-making. No one can argue the importance of a well-grounded, unified, and harmonized data source for their organization. Whether to use it for data visualization and reporting capability or building the Advanced Analytics capability. It is the natural right priority for any CFO.
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