In an autonomous finance function, processes and activities are partly governed and majority operated by self-learning software agents that optimize front-, middle- and back-office operations.

According to Shannon Cole, senior director analyst, research in the Gartner Finance practice, opines that many CFOs are ill-equipped to identify and address the rapidly evolving digital skills needed in finance.

She added that expertise in traditional finance topics, while valuable, does not prepare leaders to train staff to execute on capabilities, such as deploying bots, machine learning, and AI algorithms.

Gartner says CFOs have ambitious plans to reach a state of autonomous finance within the next three to six years that will require a significant reshaping of finance team structures to achieve.

In today's PodChats for FutureCFO, we are joined by Charlie Cheah, Asia Managing Director for Esker to share with us his perspective on how CFOs and finance teams can chart their path to finance automation.

1. Gartner says Autonomous Finance is central to the future of the finance function. What are some of the challenges for retaining employees, suppliers and customers?
2. Can you elaborate more on how AI-driven technology impact the daily work of the employees?
3. How do you see customers & suppliers benefiting from AI-driven solutions?
4. What is positive sum growth and how does it impact an organization’s ecosystem?
5. To sum up, how can companies ensure competitiveness against technologies offered to their employees, suppliers and customers?
6. Before we conclude our podchat, any recommendations for our listeners on how they can perhaps apply positive-sum group to their operations?