As much as 86 per cent of financial professionals still rely on Microsoft Excel for budgeting and forecasting, while 75 per cent use manual reviews and approvals, according to new research from fintech solution provider PayEm.
Despite the fact that artificial intelligence (AI)-driven and automated solutions are rapidly becoming increasingly popular across industries, PayEm reveals that a technological gap continues to exist in the financial industry – pointing to a need to quickly modernise spend management and financial operations.
In its newest report, PayEm surveyed 270 finance professionals from accounting managers to CFOs across 25 industries, including banking, healthcare, and manufacturing. It found that some of the main challenges for respondents are caused by manual and inefficient processes (55 per cent), followed by breaking the budget or lack of budget performance (35 per cent).
The responses were reflective of the use of outdated tools like Excel. Without clear, real-time insights that automation and AI provides, tracking expenditures accurately, enforcing budgets, and making informed financial decisions becomes difficult. This lack of transparency can lead to overspending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities for cost optimisation.
Itamar Jobani, founder and CEO of PayEm
“Comparing the rate of technological adoption in other industries and seeing the discrepancy in the financial industry is uncovering a tremendous opportunity for growth and expansion in the financial sector,” explains Itamar Jobani, founder and CEO of PayEm. “The industry will benefit tremendously from AI and automation since the technology provides efficiency and transparency across businesses that is just not possible without them.”
The survey noted that the most important factor in implementing new technologies was cost effectiveness, with 80 per cent of executives stating cost as their main concern.
Seventy-eight per cent of respondents also expressed that ease of integration with existing systems was critical to the implementation of new technology.
“Many organisations hesitate to adopt new solutions, fearing substantial initial investments and intricate integration processes. However, these challenges are often overstated, especially with the availability of scalable, subscription-based SaaS solutions,” concludes Jobani.
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