Using AI for finance processes has been a compelling idea for years, and it's not hard to find companies that are really doing it. Machine learning, natural language processing (NLP) and intelligent chatbots are taking over much of the tedious work of accounting, reporting and auditing. They're even performing basic financial analysis and decision-making that used to be unique to humans. But several experts agreed that AI for finance departments is still in the early adoption phase. Companies are either piloting AI or using it for narrow purposes, said Adrian Tay, managing director of finance and CFO services at Deloitte Consulting.

A heartless tin man, a pair of dazzling red shoes and the yellow brick road all helped the 1939 musical masterpiece The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, the most influential movie of all time. Famous for the munchkins, its early use of colour, and timeless songs such as Over The Rainbow, the movie came top out of almost 47,000 films. It took the crown and cult classics Star Wars and Psycho came in second and third, respectively. Researchers at the University of Turin in Italy calculated an'influence score' for films listed in the internet movie database (IMDb). Each movie was placed in order according to how often it was referenced by a later film. The results showed that the top 20 most influential films were all produced before 1980, mostly in the US.