Is your finance function ready?

Most discussions about AI focus on productivity, automation, and new digital capabilities. Those conversations matter, but they overlook a more fundamental transformation.

While many finance leaders are already using AI in their own work to analyse information, accelerate reporting and support decision-making, the bigger shift lies in AI becoming an integral part of the business.

When AI is embedded more deeply into business operations and undertakes activities that have traditionally required human effort, it changes how work is performed, how costs are incurred, and how value is created. AI is increasingly becoming a form of digital labour,  creating a new economic model for how work gets done.

This growing combination of human and digital labour will require finance to develop new capabilities to measure, govern, forecast, and optimise this emerging resource. 

The economics of AI behave differently to the cost models finance teams are used to managing.

Unlike traditional labour, digital labour is becoming more capable while the cost of using it declines. This combination is enabling organisations to apply AI across a broader range of activities, meaning that while the cost of each interaction falls, overall investment continues to grow as AI becomes more deeply integrated into the business.

This creates a more dynamic environment for financial management. Business cases will need to be reviewed more frequently, while forecasts will need to account for changing AI consumption. Governance frameworks will also need to evolve as AI becomes embedded in more business processes. Planning approaches designed for relatively stable technology investments may no longer provide the agility organisations need.

As organisations adopt digital labour at scale, finance leaders will increasingly need to understand a new commercial measure: tokens. Tokens measure AI consumption, and understanding how they are consumed will become increasingly important for forecasting costs, allocating investment and strengthening financial governance.

As AI becomes more deeply embedded across the organisation, finance leaders have a central role ensuring financial disciplines evolve alongside it.

1. Understand AI economics

Finance teams don't need to become AI specialists, but they do need to understand how AI consumption translates into business cost, how those costs are changing, and what that means for investment decisions.

2. Refresh financial disciplines

Budgeting, forecasting and business case methodologies should evolve as AI capability and consumption change more rapidly than traditional technology investments. More frequent review points and shorter planning cycles will help organisations respond more effectively.

3. Strengthen governance

As AI becomes embedded in business processes, governance frameworks should evolve alongside it. That includes understanding where AI is being used, establishing appropriate guardrails, and ensuring accountability remains clear as operating models change.

4. Improve visibility of AI consumption and value

As AI use grows across the organisation, finance teams will need better visibility of consumption, cost allocation and value creation. Organisations that are further advanced in their AI adoption are already monitoring AI consumption much more frequently than traditional technology costs because usage patterns can change rapidly. 

5. Build a more adaptive finance function

The pace of AI development means organisations will need to reassess investment decisions more frequently than in the past. Finance has a central role in creating planning, governance, and decision-making processes that enable greater agility while maintaining appropriate financial discipline. 

The organisations that create the greatest value from AI won't necessarily be those that adopt the latest tools first. They'll be the ones that understand how AI is changing the economics of their business and adapt their financial disciplines accordingly.

For finance leaders, that's both the challenge and the opportunity. As AI reshapes how value is created, the finance function has a central role in helping organisations navigate the investment decisions, governance challenges and resource allocation choices that will define the next phase of AI adoption.