Group of Seven (G7) finance leaders have pledged to take action to maintain the stability of the global financial system after recent banking turmoil and to give low- and middle-income countries a bigger role in diversifying supply chains to make them more resilient. Their communique did not mention China by name but the supply-chain language fits in with "friend-shoring" efforts by industrial democracies to work with each other to become less reliant on the Asian manufacturing powerhouse for battery minerals, semiconductors and other strategic goods. "We commit to jointly empowering low- and middle-income countries to play bigger roles in supply chains through mutually beneficial cooperation by combining finance, knowledge, and partnership, which will help contribute to sustainable development and enhance supply chain resilience globally," the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors said in the statement on Wednesday. The finance chiefs of G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – met on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings in Washington, DC. They said they discussed recent financial sector developments after the failure of two United States banks and the forced sale of troubled global lender Credit Suisse. "We will continue to closely monitor financial sector developments and stand ready to take appropriate actions to maintain the stability and resilience of the global financial system," the G7 finance leaders said.

With global volatility and inflation impacting organizations across all industries, business agility has never been more important. Leaders turn to finance teams to get real-time insight into business performance and recommendations on future initiatives that will help them thrive amid disruption. But finance teams are overwhelmed with manual tasks, cobbling together data, and disconnected teams. Achieving game-changing business agility begins with augmenting the human ingenuity of your people with intelligent process automation. When it comes to reimagining processes with AI, automation, and analytics, many finance leaders don't know where to start.

Automation works best when it's accompanied by an organizational structure that doesn't stand in the way of quick changes in focus, the research firm says. CFOs need to adopt hyperautomation and an intelligent composable business style to avoid having fragmented and ill-considered technology approaches that curtail the potential benefits of digitalization, says Gartner. The research and advisory firm called the two approaches the areas of tech CFOs should be focusing on the most. They "reflect the need for finance leaders to quickly and efficiently adjust to rapidly changing business conditions," said Alejandra Lozada, senior director of research in the Gartner finance practice. Hyperautomation refers to the automating of manual and onerous processes to help leaders adjust quickly to changing business conditions.

Sixty-nine percent of board directors say that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are accelerating their digital business initiatives. The challenge for CFOs is how to fund digitalization and growth while maintaining control over their organization's finances -- even when operating conditions remain highly volatile. This dual mandate for 2021 is clear in the priorities cited by CFOs, controllers, and heads of financial planning and analysis (FP&A) in Gartner year-end surveys. Finance leaders also noted that many of their priorities for 2021 will be time-consuming, and few will be easy to accomplish. "CFOs have been asking more and more about artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics and advanced analytics," says Alex Bant, Chief of Research, Finance, Gartner. "2021 is the year to pivot from discussions about the future to making real investments, seeing short-term wins and cost off-set, and having a clear plan for the future."

Smart CFOs now have to give serious thought to artificial intelligence (AI). The technology, which enables computers to be taught to analyze data, identify patterns, and predict outcomes, has evolved from aspirational to mainstream, opening a potential knowledge gap among some finance leaders. In fact, "AI's'early adopter' phase is ending," according to the recently published third edition of Deloitte's State of AI in the Enterprise report.1 The survey, which collected responses from nearly 2,750 executives at companies that have adopted AI, found that about half of respondents (47%) were "skilled" in their AI efforts, meaning that their companies had launched multiple AI systems, but lagged in terms of their number of implementations or their AI expertise--or both. Another 26% were categorized as "seasoned," given that they had already built multiple AI systems and shown a high level of maturity in selecting, managing, and integrating AI technologies.

Smart CFOs now have to give serious thought to artificial intelligence (AI). The technology, which enables computers to be taught to analyze data, identify patterns, and predict outcomes, has evolved from aspirational to mainstream, opening a potential knowledge gap among some finance leaders. In fact, "AI's'early adopter' phase is ending," according to the recently published third edition of Deloitte's State of AI in the Enterprise report.1 The survey, which collected responses from nearly 2,750 executives at companies that have adopted AI, found that about half of respondents (47%) were "skilled" in their AI efforts, meaning that their companies had launched multiple AI systems, but lagged in terms of their number of implementations or their AI expertise--or both. Another 26% were categorized as "seasoned," given that they had already built multiple AI systems and shown a high level of maturity in selecting, managing, and integrating AI technologies.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has left businesses scrambling to manage cashflows and drive continuity amid rapid and radical disruption. With liquidity top of mind, finance leaders are re-evaluating cash positions and making real-time adjustments to revenue and profit models in order to mitigate their organization's exposure. This landscape has put added pressure on sales leaders who must steer business forward by delivering revenue commitments in the face of evolving market conditions and customer needs. Already, market volatility has seen deals delayed and contracts frozen causing massive disruption to the pipeline. Buying behaviors have shifted drastically as organizations focus on shoring up cash and consumers stay home.

In a recent McKinsey survey, only 13 percent of CFOs and other senior business executives polled said their finance organizations use automation technologies, such as robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning. What's more, when asked how much return on investment the finance organization has generated from digitization and automation in the past 12 months, only 5 percent said it was a substantial return; the more common response was "modest" or "minimal" returns. While that number may seem low right now, automation is coming to the finance function, and it will play a crucial role in furthering the CFO's position in the C-suite. Research suggests corporate finance teams spend about 80 percent of their time manually gathering, verifying, and consolidating data, leaving only about 20 percent for higher-level tasks, such as analysis and decision-making. In its truest form, RPA will unleash a new wave of digital transformation in corporate finance.

Finance teams are integral and essential to the smooth running of any business. The role of the finance team is beginning to increase in scope, and this means that finance professionals are beginning to be concerned about what they can't see or control. Finance teams of the past have left the company's decisions around implementing new technology to others, seeing it as beyond their remit. If the IT was not broken, then the finance team was certainly not looking for a way to fix it. Now, however, the situation has changed.

When a major consumer company recently disclosed a multimillion-dollar accounting goof that had gone undetected for three years, it was forced to revise financial statements going back to 2016. The revelation sent its stock plummeting and prompted an ongoing SEC probe. Emerging technologies are doing more than streamline finance workflows. Ultimately, AI's greatest potential benefit for CFOs, managers and accountants is to help them make smarter, faster data-driven decisions. "The market is increasingly dynamic," says Meenakshi Tripathy, senior director and head of finance business products at ServiceNow.