CFOs urged to pick up AI tools and explore opportunities

CFOs are being urged not to bury their head in the sand when it comes to AI adoption. By Nina Hendy.

A leading Australian CFO has warned that AI will be a transformative technology for finance teams, adding that time is of the essence.

TechnologyOne CFO, Cale Bennett says that finance teams need to act quickly to understand how generative AI technology can transform work processes, or risk being left behind.

With more than 25 years of experience, Bennett has held senior finance roles in ASX listed companies in banking, entertainment and transportation sectors. He spoke out in a recent LinkedIn post, telling his followers that ‘things just got real for me’.

“Early in my career, programming gave me a productivity edge as a finance person—automating tedious tasks and building solutions that enabled me to get things done faster. With AI, the barrier to entry has just been dramatically lowered,” he wrote.

“AI will be transformative, but for many enterprise-level finance teams, the benefits have felt incremental—faster summaries and Excel add-ins. It’s been helpful, but not game-changing.

“That changed when I tried Cursor, an AI-powered code editor. You no longer need to know how to code to generate and work through code. And that’s a vast unlock for finance teams who’ve lived with manual processes.

“Take this example: in just 2 hours, I used Cursor to ‘write’ 300 lines of Python to build a repeatable model that calculates the fair value of options with a Total Shareholder Return (TSR) hurdle. It’s a reasonably complex piece of logic that would’ve been too difficult or time-consuming for most corporate finance teams to attempt to solve (despite the cost charged by third-party consultants to run the calc for you). Without AI, this outcome wouldn’t have been possible,” he wrote.

“This technology is improving so fast and its utility is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. If you don’t begin to experiment with it now, you will be playing catch up later. You can put your head in the sand all you want, but this is not going away,”

Cale Bennett, CFO, TechnologyOne

“What struck me most was this: I didn’t need to know how to code the solution. I just needed to know what outcome I wanted. Cursor handled the rest.”

The post continued: “With Anthropic’s CEO predicting that 90% of code will be written with AI in three months—even if he’s off by years—this is the worst these tools will ever be. AI is not just about making developers faster. It’s about making non-developers capable of creating solutions through code.”

Bennett told CFO Magazine said he wrote the post to start the conversation about the possibilities that AI presents for finance teams, adding that that the speed of evolution in the AI space was happening quicker than he expected.

“This technology is improving so fast and its utility is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. If you don’t begin to experiment with it now, you will be playing catch up later. You can put your head in the sand all you want, but this is not going away,” Bennett said.

He gave his team a presentation about Generative AI nine months ago, encouraging them to start playing around with the technology. “We could see that it was clunky, but it was the worst it was ever going to be. It was only going to get better.

Fast forward to this year, and he’s still having the same conversations internally. “We can see there’s so much potential,” he said.

Focus on opportunities

Bennett recalls a recent conversation with the person implementing AI at one of the biggest accounting firms in the country. “As I wrapped up the meeting, I asked them who was doing AI well in the finance space in Australia, and their answer was ‘no-one’,” he said.

He urged finance teams to remain curious. “People need to be aware things are changing very, very quickly. The adoption curve is unlike any other technology and at some stage soon, it will become mainstream in the enterprise,” Bennett said.

While a misunderstanding of the risk of AI is being used as an excuse to sit on the fence, he believes the focus needs to shift more to the opportunities. “We’re behind we’re I’d love to be, and I am mindful that these skills will be a requirement for finance teams in the not distant future,” he said.

“From an operational point of view, there have been some incremental improvements using AI, such as Co-pilot summarising a meeting, or writing Excel formulas. But so far, this hasn’t been super impactful,” Bennett said.

“Since February, the path is clear that will result in AI accelerating the work we do using agents.”

Hiring freeze

A number of leading companies are pushing their teams to explore how AI can make their lives easier. What the impact will be on jobs in the future is yet to be seen.

Interestingly, a leaked staff memo send out by the Tobi Lutke, CEO of ecommerce platform Shopify told employees they can only hire new staff if the role can’t be completed by AI. “Before asking for more headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they can’t get what they want done using AI,” he said.

“What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? This question ca n lead to really fun discussions and projects,” the memo read.

Bennett understands the sentiment. “What he’s trying to do is encourage his teams to go and play with AI. He wants them to go out there and find the answer, and discover what’s possible. The only way you can figure that out is not by being told, but by going out there and using it.”

To ensure their skills stay relevant, finance teams will need to go on a journey to understand the best processes for AI. But the reality is you have to be very careful about what you’re doing,” he said.

Curious people in the finance space will be exploring what AI can do outside of work hours, and contemplating how they can utilise it to do their job better when on the clock.

“No one knows a problem better than the person who has it. The toolsets for people to solve their own problems are emerging in many areas, enabling operating leverage,” Bennett said.

IMD’s Professor of Digital Strategy, Jose Parra Moyano also recently urged CFOs to refocus on business value, data readiness and employee buy-in in a University of Sydney business thinktank.

He said that rather than adopting AI for its own sake, organisations should focus on solving measurable challenges – such as using algorithms to improve sales performance. “For example, a salesperson using AI to predict which clients to approach, thereby increasing revenue from $1 million a year to $1.3 million – a specific use case that demonstrates tangible business value,” Moyano said.

Rewriting the work rulebook

Bennett said that finance teams need to remember that the rules have changed. “The limiting factor is no longer technical skill—it’s intellectual property. If you understand the problem well enough, you can quickly turn it into a solution.

“This is especially exciting for finance leaders looking to improve operational leverage. AI will turbocharge your team’s capacity like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

As a simple proof of concept, he advised finance teams to check out AutomatetheBoringStuff.com to see what’s possible with Python. “You’ll be amazed at how many finance use cases it covers.”

Secondly, finance teams should experiment with challenges using a tool like Cursor, with the journey from idea to solution extremely short.  

And while making sure you remain within the constraints of your company security policies, he urged finance teams not to wait while your company to catches up. “Use your curiosity to drive yourself forward. Cursor costs $20 monthly, a small investment in the grand scheme,” he said.

Cale Bennett will be speaking at the upcoming CFO Magazine A/NZ Brisbane CFO Symposium on Tuesday 27th May at the Sofitel Brisbane

> For CFOs looking to register to attend visit: www.QLDCFOSymposium.com