Why Finance Automation Rollouts Keep Stalling: The CFO Questions to Ask First

If AI can build the dashboard in minutes, why learn Power BI at all?Who tells the AI what "revenue" means on your team?What happens when the dashboard looks right and the numbers are wrong?HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODEMike has spent the year showing AI tools build his Power BI dashboards, so finance pros keep asking whether Power BI is still worth learning. His answer is yes. AI can draw the charts in minutes, but it only gets the numbers right after a person tells it what each number means, and for FP&A teams that definition work is still the job. The guy who kept saying "replaced" is now explaining what's left, and he closes with three things he'd do about it.This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back. Fifty-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Contact -> [email protected] -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcastConnect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Instagram -> @f9financeTikTok -> @f9financeResources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/Next Steps:Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you’re ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it’s time to invest in AI for Finance.

Your AI tools got the number right. Can you show how? If your auditor asked who checked the AI's answer, who would raise their hand? Do you have a record of what you asked the AI to do?HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODEMost finance teams now use AI tools to help produce their numbers, and most of the time the tools get it right. Then the auditor shows up. Most teams can't answer, because nobody kept a record of what the AI was asked or who checked the answer before it went into the report. Mike walks CFOs and finance pros through the three things an auditor will ask and what to have ready for each, so you can keep using AI and still enjoy a boring audit.This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back. Fifty-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Contact -> [email protected] -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcastConnect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Instagram -> @f9financeTikTok -> @f9financeResources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/Next Steps:Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you’re ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it’s time to invest in AI for Finance.

AI saved you two hours this week. Where did they go?If your AI tools are working, why are you still at your desk at 8pm?What would your FP&A team do with an hour nobody else gets to claim?HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODEAI tools save finance pros real time every week, and the research backs it up. The catch comes after. About a third of those saved hours get refilled with more work, so the time never makes it home. Mike uses AI so his team spends the day on the thinking and still leaves on time, and he wants every CFO and FP&A lead listening to decide what a saved hour is for before somebody else decides it for them.This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back. Fifty-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Contact -> [email protected] -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcastConnect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Instagram -> @f9financeTikTok -> @f9financeResources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/Next Steps:Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you’re ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it’s time to invest in AI for Finance.

Can you prove what your AI tools paid back this year? Who asked for the last AI project your team built?Why has the same payback problem shown up in surveys since 2007? HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODEAre AI tools worth it for FP&A? Mike asks the question most companies skip. He tells the story of a client team that built six AI projects a week, and when he checked, almost all of them paid back nothing and nobody had asked for them. The problem is older than ChatGPT. The people who build these tools have reported it in a survey since 2007. CFOs and finance pros already know the fix: write down the starting number, then come back and check. This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back. Fifty-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Contact -> [email protected] -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcastConnect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Instagram -> @f9financeTikTok -> @f9financeResources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Next Steps:Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you're ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it's time to invest in AI for Finance.

Ever opened a deck your AI Tools built and found the numbers went wrong three steps back? Watching every AI pilot on your FP&A team stall out before anything ships? Tired of being the only person in the room asking who actually checked this? Mike came back from his yearly AI conference with a pattern he did not expect, because talk after talk was about AI not working, and the reason kept tracing back to the same thing: nobody checking the information going in. He fixes it the way companies approve big spending, with named people at set points who can each stop the whole thing. He calls them gates. Every AI process needs three. Built for finance pros and any FP&A team putting AI Tools into real work. He goes to that same conference every year. This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back. Fifty-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Contact -> [email protected] -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcastConnect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/Instagram -> @f9financeTikTok -> @f9financeResources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Next Steps:Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you're ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it's time to invest in AI for Finance.