Generative AI is ready to partner with your finance team, boosting efficiency and insight across corporate finance. Let's explore the top ways finance leaders are deploying it to drive measurable impact.
Sydney Scott
Editorial Strategist, AI
Workday
Generative AI (genAI) adoption is growing rapidly across the business world. Thanks to the ability to generate new content quickly and at scale, it’s saving teams across industries and functions hours of time they can reallocate to higher-level work.
A recent study by Bain Capital found that support for generative AI adoption at the CFO level is nearly unanimous—94% say they see it strongly benefitting at least one activity within the finance function in the next 12 months, and three-quarters plan to increase their AI budgets accordingly.
Today, generative AI in finance is finding traction across use cases that cover everything from forecasting and planning to financial reporting to enterprise risk management to treasury and more.
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94% of CFOs believe generative AI will benefit their finance function in the next 12 months.
Generative AI in finance is moving quickly from experimentation to full deployment. It’s leveling up data analysis capabilities and delivering sophisticated insights that drive smarter decisions across the enterprise.
These are the current top 7 applications for generative AI in corporate finance:
Forecasting is at the heart of corporate finance, but too often projections are outdated by the time they reach leadership. Teams spend weeks reworking assumptions only to find they’ve missed critical shifts in the market or supply chain. As a result, leaders make decisions on stale information.
How generative AI helps:
With genAI in place, finance can move toward more continuous planning models and guide the business with forward-looking insights that are always accurate and current.
Closing the books is a notoriously time-consuming process. Teams spend countless hours consolidating data, reconciling inconsistencies, and formatting reports for executives. Often, too much effort goes into producing reports and not enough into analyzing what they actually mean.
How generative AI helps:
The payoff is a faster and more insightful close process. Finance teams can shift their focus from clerical assembly to interpreting results and advising leadership. Artificial intelligence accelerates the mechanics, while human teams add judgment and context.
Payment cycles are a frequent source of friction in finance. Manual invoice handling slows down approvals, mismatched records create delays, and inconsistent outreach can damage vendor and customer relationships. The net effect is weaker liquidity and strained trust across the value chain.
How generative AI helps:
GenAI-powered automated invoice processing software gives finance teams more predictable cash flow and stronger working capital. Leaders still need to monitor accuracy and alignment with policy, but genAI takes the repetitive administrative burden from AP and AR so staff can focus on exceptions and higher‑value activities.
Risk and compliance functions are under more strain than ever. Finance teams must track rising transaction volumes while proving to regulators and auditors that controls are tight and documentation is complete. The challenge is scale: Manual reviews can’t keep up, and issues are often only spotted after the fact.
How generative AI helps:
Used well, these capabilities allow finance leaders to catch problems earlier and strengthen compliance posture while saving time spent on routine checks.
Treasury functions sit at the intersection of liquidity, risk, and market volatility. The challenge is that traditional forecasting tools often lag behind reality, leaving treasurers reacting after conditions have already shifted.
How generative AI helps:
With these capabilities, treasury leaders gain the foresight to act ahead of disruptions instead of responding after the fact. Finance leaders can refine funding and hedging moves continuously to align actions with market conditions as they unfold.
Investor relations is one of the most visible finance functions, where accuracy and speed directly shape market confidence. The pressure point is clear: IR teams must respond quickly to analyst questions and investor concerns while ensuring every statement is consistent and compliant.
How generative AI helps:
Handled well, generative AI allows IR teams to deliver information faster without compromising quality. The technology speeds up drafting, while professionals refine tone, context, and accuracy to protect credibility and build stronger investor relationships.
Audit and controls safeguard organizational integrity, but teams are often buried in documentation and manual reviews. Strain occurs from balancing the need for thorough oversight with the volume of transactions and evidence required.
How generative AI helps:
These capabilities change the audit process from being bogged down in documents to primarily insights-driven. Routine paperwork and exception tracking can be automated, which gives auditors more time to dig into the root causes of anomalies and evaluate the effectiveness of controls.
The smartest path toward GenAI adoption is a phased approach that builds momentum on small wins.
For most finance organizations, the question isn’t whether or not to explore generative AI but how to begin responsibly. The smartest path forward is a phased approach that builds momentum on small wins.
Pilots are an effective entry point. Choose a focused use case where benefits can be measured quickly. Define clear success metrics at the outset, from cycle time reductions to accuracy improvements, so you can calculate ROI with confidence.
Preparing your people for AI adoption is equally important. Generative AI changes how finance teams work and collaborate with technology in their roles. Change management, communication, and training must all be built into your generative AI rollout plan.
Finally, investing in upskilling initiatives for your team is crucial for making the most of your AI tools from day one. When teams are comfortable and confident with genAI, they use it more readily and in ways that actually make an impact.
AI holds huge potential, 98% of CEOs foresee immediate business benefits. Download this report to discover the potential positive impact.
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