Finance Innovation

Survey 2023
How Finance executives in Switzerland
see the current state of AI and its potential
in Finance
Foreword

This year’s Deloitte Finance Innovation Survey addresses the question of AI adoption in Finance. We explore
the opportunity for the application of digital technologies generally, and AI in particular, within Finance,
highlight the continuing importance of human talent and skills, even as automation advances, and explore
the challenges of successful AI implementation.

Last year’s survey looked at another critical topic: sustainability and the role of the Finance function.
Responses revealed a gap between Swiss Finance leaders’ sustainability aspirations and their readiness to be
part of the transformation. Is ambition also outpacing capability in the adoption of AI?

Few would doubt that AI is here to stay in Finance. Businesses have successfully implemented AI-powered
technologies, for example to increase automation or improve decision-making. What then does the current
installed base tell us about the potential of AI in Finance and what lessons can be drawn from these
pioneer projects?

We hope this report provides insights that will help you in your transformation to an AI-fuelled Finance
function and we look forward to continuing our dialogue with you.

Markus Zorn,
Partner
Finance and Performance
(F&P) Lead Switzerland

02
Key findings

Current state of AI adoption in Finance

• AI is already widespread in Switzerland. Almost 90% of Swiss Finance executives surveyed say
they are aware of AI initiatives in their company. 75% say AI solutions are being implemented.

• From an organisational perspective, most AI projects are initiated at a function level. Finance is
a leading function in AI adoption.

• Nevertheless, almost 60% of survey participants describe the current maturity level of AI
adoption as low.

Digital technologies and AI application

• AI has untapped potential. Among all the digital technologies available to Finance today,
respondents to the survey expect AI to show the greatest increase in importance over the next
two years.

• Whilst AI today impacts mainly Financial planning and analysis, Financial operations, and
Controllership and reporting, all functional areas of Finance are seen as having future potential
for AI led automation.

• According to the survey results, the greatest benefits AI offers in Finance are improved process
efficiency and forward-looking insights.

People and organisation

• Success with AI depends on a re-think of the traditional Finance skillset. New AI specific skills are
required to work productively with AI technologies. Foremost among them are programming
languages, proficiency with cloud technologies, and mathematical and statistics knowledge.

• All Finance domains have identified the need for AI related skills. However, three out of four
respondents indicate that training and/or hiring of Finance professionals with such skills has not
yet begun.

Implementation approach and governance

• Most AI projects today take place for rather individual use cases within functions and are not
embedded in or following a group wide strategy. Scaling and industrialisation of AI therefore can
become more complex and requires more change effort.

• AI implementations face some familiar challenges. The most mentioned are data availability and/or
quality issues, a lack of knowledge and skills, and the lack of an AI strategy or vision.

03
Contents

01 Defining AI in Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05

02 Current state of AI adoption in Finance . . . . . . . 07

03 Digital technologies and AI applications . . . . . . . 11

04 Talent and skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

05 Implementation challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

06 Concluding thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

07 Contact and authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

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 Proposal title goes here |
 Section title goes here

01.
Defining AI in Finance

05
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to software with self-learning algorithms capable of
complementing human judgement in task completion. It encompasses many technologies that
work together to enable innovative solutions, such as Deep Learning which can be applied to image, text,
and audio recognition and interpretation. Such technologies have the potential to disrupt industries and
transform organisations.

Finance as an insight led function is in the vanguard of AI adoption:

In Business Finance, AI helps decision making by providing deeper insights to Finance functions. For
instance, AI applied through Natural Language Generation (NLG) and AI-powered decision intelligence helps
companies create insightful management reports. An interactive dashboard enriched with narratives can
derive actionable insights from profit and loss figures. It identifies the performance impact of value drivers,
recommends potential actions, and can provide performance alerts to users.

In Operational Finance, AI can reduce the burden of manual work in transactional finance processes beyond
what can be reached with Robotic Process Automation (RPA). For instance, AI applied through cognitive
automation using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) builds the foundation for touchless invoice (accounts
payable) processing as all received invoices, regardless of their format, are converted into machine-readable
data for processing. Regarding back-office processes, AI can also be leveraged for assessing credit limits and
cash collection, where it can identify irregular patterns and help the back-office team to focus on key outliers,
or proactively suggest change activities (e.g., credit limit increase).

If you want to find out more about use cases for AI in Finance, please reach out to our topic experts:

Jon Bailey, Miriam Hirs, Marwan Kosbah,

F&P Switzerland F&P Switzerland F&P Switzerland
Finance Strategy Lead Business Finance Lead Operational Finance Lead

“A clear vision is key to set the “Selecting the right use case can “Automation is key. I’m looking
direction for any AI journey. Our help accelerate your AI journey. forward discussingwith you
Digital Finance lab accelerates I’d be delighted to discuss how to use the full potential
your vision definition, helping you options with you in the area of AI to accelerate the
to get off to a great start” of planning & forecasting and automation of Finance and to
advanced analytics” boost performance.”

06
02.
Current state of AI adoption
in Finance

07
AI adoption is taking place and offers
significant benefits for Finance
Illustration 1: Are you aware of ongoing or completed AI initiatives/projects in
your company?

Yes -- II am
Yes am aware
aware ofof
concreteAI
concrete AIinitiatives
initiatives
Companies are putting AI to work. The vast in
inmy
mycompany
company
majority (almost 90%) of survey participants say outsideFinance
outside Finance
they are aware of concrete AI initiatives in their
44% 44% No - I am not aware
company. Almost half of these are in the Finance of
Noany AI initiatives
- I am not aware of
function. Only 1 in 10 survey participants are not any AI initiatives

aware of any AI initiatives.

Yes
Yes -- II am
am aware
aware ofof
concrete
concreteAI AIinitiatives
initiatives
11%
in
inmy
myFinance
Financearea
area

Illustration 2: Has any AI solution already been implemented in your company?

75%

The implementation of AI solutions is well

underway. Almost 90% of survey participants
are aware of specific AI initiatives in their
company and only slightly fewer say that such
solutions have already been implemented. 19%
75% of respondents say that AI solutions have 6%
been implemented in their company.
Yes - AI solutions have No - AI solutions have I don't know if AI
been implementend in not been implemented solutions have been
my company in my company implemented in my
company

08
Illustration 3: On which organisational level(s) are AI projects initiated in your
company?

Group wide
Group wide
14.63%
Most AI projects are initiated at a function 21.95% Division/Business unit
Division/Business unit
or process-specific level. Most AI projects are
initiated either at the function level (26.8%) or at Functions (e.g. Finance,
17.07% Procurement,
Functions (e.g. Legal, HR)
Finance,
a process-specific level (22.0%). Other levels at Procurement, Legal, HR)
which AI projects are initiated are shared service Shared Services
19.51% Shared Services of
Centres/Centre
centres/centres of excellence (19.5%) and the Centres/Centre of
Excellence
division/business unit level (17.1%). By contrast, Excellence
Process specific
specific(e.g.
only 14.6% of projects are initiated at group level. 26.83% Process
O2C, P2P)
(e.g.
O2C, P2P)

Illustration 4: Which department in your organisation is the owner of

Finance-related AI projects?

13%
Most Finance-related AI projects are owned
by the Finance function. 69% of the companies Finance

surveyed state that the Finance function owns

19% IT
Finance-related AI projects. However, 19% see
the IT function as owning Finance-related AI Other

projects and 12% state that other functions own 69%

Finance-related AI projects.

09
Illustration 5: Which of the following maturity levels best reflect the current stage
of AI adoption in your Finance area?

59%

18%
12%
6% 6%

AI adoption not yet started Very low maturity (e.g. explore Low maturity (e.g. conduct Intermediate (e.g. formalise High maturity (e.g. enhance
the potential of AI) first experiments with AI strategy towards AI adoption) current AI capabilities)
technologies)

AI is still in its infancy in Finance departments. Most of the Finance professionals surveyed (59%) describe
the current maturity level of AI adoption as low and, roughly equivalent to implementing AI solutions
experimentally. 18% of respondents even describe the current maturity level as very low. Less than 10%
describe it as high.

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03.
Digital technologies and AI
applications

11
The AI-fuelled Finance function is
gaining momentum
Illustration 6: In general, which of the following technologies have you used
in your Finance organisation 2 years ago, or use today or expect to use in
2 years’ time?

61.1%

54.2% 54.2%
50.0%
45.5%
41.4% 42.3%
39.1% 38.5%
37.0% 37.0%
34.5% 33.3%
30.4% 30.8%
26.1% 27.3%
25.0%
22.7%
20.8% 20.8% 20.7%

14.8%
11.5% 11.1% 12.5% 11.5%
7.7% 8.3% 7.7%
5.6%
4.3% 4.2% 3.4% 4.5%
0.0%

Process mining Robotic Process Artificial Intelligence Data science Interactive data Cognitive science Advanced analytics Cloud computing Blockchain
Automation visualisation

About 2 years ago Currently About 2 years from now Not even after 2 years from now

Digital technologies will become crucial for the future of Finance. Leading the adoption of digital
technologies in Finance are Interactive data visualisation, Data science and Robotic Process Automation
(respectively 52%, 44%, 35%). These technologies are expected still to be the leaders in two years’ time.
However, particularly large gains are expected in Advanced analytics and Artificial Intelligence, which will then
rank in the top three alongside Robotic Process Automation (respectively 59%, 57%, 57%).

12
Illustration 7: In your opinion, to what extent will AI impact day-to-day work
within the following Finance areas?

65.3%
59.7% 60.3%
54.7% 55.0%

45.6% 45.3%

35.0% 33.8%
31.9%
27.9%
23.4% 23.3%
20.6%

13.3% 15.0%

Finance leadership Controllership and Financial planning Business unit (BU) Finance operations Tax Treasury Risk and compliance
reporting and analysis

Today In the next 2-5 years

AI will impact all functional areas of a Finance function. Survey respondents indicate that the areas of
Financial planning and analysis, Financial operations, and Controllership and reporting are already impacted
by AI to a greater extent than other Finance areas (respectively 34%, 32%, 28%). Over the next two years
adoption is also expected in Tax, Treasury and Risk and compliance (respectively 45%, 55%, 55%).

Illustration 8: Where do you see the greatest benefits of AI technology in your

Finance area?

Making processes more efficient leading

to reduced costs and enhanced
Process eficiency and forward-looking productivity
insights are key benefits of AI. According
to the survey results, most respondents see
process efficiency as the area in which AI can Allowing scenario modelling to create
forward-looking insights
provide the greatest benefits in the form of
cost reduction and productivity enhancement.
Creating forward-looking insights through Improving existing services and
processes leading to enhanced
scenario modelling is also an area that is seen as stakeholder relationships
particularly beneficial.

Creating and implementing new products

and services leading to enhanced
Finance capabilities

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04.
Talent and skills

14
Successful AI deployment relies on
skilled talent
Illustration 9: Do you already have the necessary skills in your Finance area to work successfully with
AI technologies?

Yes, we have the

necessary skills and AI is
Workforce skills are key to implementing AI 24% being applied
in Finance and training has yet to start. Survey
results suggest that all Finance professionals
surveyed have recognised the need for AI related
The need has been
skills among their employees. But 76% say that recognised but training
training and/or hiring of Finance professionals and/or hiring of Finance
76% professionals with
with such skills has not yet started. necessary AI skills has
not yet started

Illustration 10: Which skills do you think are required to work successfully with AI technologies?

Top 10 skills:

Complex Creativity/thinking Programming

problem-solving out of the box languages

Data literacy and Adaptability to Proficiency with

modelling changing environment cloud technologies

Decision-making/ Mathematical and

Analytical thinking
critical judgment statistics knowledge

Business partnering and

collaboration management

AI-specific skills are required to work successfully with AI technologies. Traditional Finance-related skills
such as (1) complex problem-solving, (2) data literacy and modelling and (3) analytical thinking are crucial to
working successfully with AI technologies. Also crucial are softer skills such as (4) creativity/thinking out of
the box, (5) adaptability to changing environment, (6) decision-making/critical judgement and (7) business
partnering and collaboration, which are less common in Finance teams More AI-specific, non-Finance skills
complete the list: (8) programming languages, (9) proficiency with cloud technologies and (10) mathematical
and statistics knowledge.

15
05.
Implementation challenges

16
Data quality and availability are key to
the implementation of AI
Illustration 11: Please indicate which challenges you perceive to be critical when
implementing AI projects in your organisation?

Top 5 critical challenges when implementing AI projects:

Lack of maturity of
Lack of knowledge technologies and/or
system readiness

1 3 5
and skills

Data availability
2 No AI
4 Difficulties to scale
and/or quality issues strategy/vision from concept to
production

The challenges of implementing AI projects are clear. According to survey participants, the biggest
challenges are data availability and/or quality issues, lack of knowledge and skills, and the lack of an AI
strategy or vision. In addition, the results show that a lack of technological maturity and/or system readiness
and difficulties scaling from concept to production are challenges to be overcome.

17
18
06.
Concluding thoughts

Current state of AI adoption in Finance

• As AI gains more and more traction in Finance, it will be beneficial for Finance to take
ownership of its own AI implementations.

• Finance should consider a review of the current capability to identify where AI could yield
the greatest benefits.

Digital technologies and AI applications

• Digital technologies are becoming increasingly important in Finance, with AI seen as having
the greatest potential.

• AI is expected to be widely applied across all Finance domains. Finance should begin by
identifying candidate business cases, prioritising them and planning their implementation.

Talent and skills

• Finance should provide, in collaboration with a dedicated central function, specialised
training programmes to teach new AI specific skills required to work successfully with
AI technologies.

• The hiring strategy should be aligned with the organisation’s AI vision and ensure to
include talent with the required AI knowledge, skills, and technological acumen.

Implementation challenges

• To realise the full potential of AI, Finance should define concrete actions to address the
current challenges to implementation.

• These challenges can be overcome by establishing a clear vision and value case,
developing a foundational data model, utilising AI toolkits, and equipping the Finance
function with the right skills and talent.

19
Demographics
Industry coverage

Illustration 15: Please indicate Consumer Business

Consumer Business
6%6%
your industry.
22%22% Financial Services
Financial Services
The surveyed population covers
all Swiss industries. Consumer, 28%
28% LifeLife Sciences
Sciences
0% 0%
financial services, and life 6% 6% Manufacturing
Manufacturing andand Energy
Energy
sciences have the strongest
Public
Public Sector
Sector
representation.
17%17% Services
Services
22%
22%
Other
Other

Annual turnover

Illustration 16: Please

0% 0%
indicate your company Below 1 billion
Below 1 billion

turnover (in CHF). > 1 >billion

1 billion - 5 billion
- 5 billion
33%33%
33% of companies surveyed
44%
44% > 5 >billion
5 billion
- 10- billion
10 billion
have an annual turnover of
more than CHF 20 billion. 61% > 10> billion
10 billion
- 20- billion
20 billion
represent companies with Over 20 billion
6% 6% Over 20 billion
revenues between CHF 1 billion
and CHF 10 billion. 17%17%

Workforce

Illustration 17: Please

LessLess
than 5,000
than employees
5,000 employees
indicate the size of your
22%22%
company workforce. 28%28% > 5,000
> 5,000 employees
employees - 10,000
- 10,000 employees
employees

34% of respondents work > 10,000

> 10,000 employees
employees - 30,000
- 30,000 employees
employees
for companies with less than 6% 6%
> 30,000
> 30,000 employees
employees - 50,000
- 50,000 employees
employees
10,000 employees. 45% for
6% 6%
companies with between 0% 0% > 50,000
> 50,000 employees
employees - 100,000
- 100,000 employees
employees
10,000 and 100,000 employees,
Over
Over 100,000
100,000 employees
employees
and 22% in companies with 39%39%
more than 100,000 employees

20
 Proposal title goes here |
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07.
Contacts and authors
If you would like to participate in our next survey and/or would like to discuss the
results, please do not hesitate to contact us.

For additional insights on the future of Finance, please refer to our Crunch Time series.

Jon Bailey, Johannes Wittmann,

Senior Manager Manager
Finance & Performance Finance & Performance
Switzerland Switzerland
[email protected] [email protected]

Felix Dietlmaier, Florian Jusufi,

Senior Consultant Consultant
Finance & Performance Finance & Performance
Switzerland Switzerland
[email protected] [email protected]

21
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