Mind the data gap with AI assistants
Everyone’s talking about generative AI, not least in finance, where CFOs are dreaming of AI assistants to whip up reports, streamline analysis processes, and perhaps even make the coffee. But before businesses get swept up in the AI gold rush, it’s important to take a moment to ask: what’s feeding the machine?
Recent research from IBM says finance teams using AI are enjoying faster budgeting, fewer bad debts, and cheaper invoices. But they also point out the key to reaping these rewards: ‘AI and gen AI initiatives can only be as successful as the underlying data permits’.
To unlock the best of generative AI, you need to embed the right data initiatives, and a good place to start is drawing on high quality, structured, XBRL tagged data. Quality inputs (data) results in higher quality outputs. Structured data also provides a map for the machine, allowing AI to more accurately and quickly pinpoint which data points respond to what requests.
So yes, AI might be the future. But without the right data foundation, it’s not going to go far.
Find out more about IBM’s research and generative AI in finance here.
