The conversation around AI in finance has changed dramatically over the last 12 months.
Finance leaders are no longer asking whether AI will impact their teams.
They are asking how quickly they can implement it, how they govern it, and how they prepare their organisations for a future where AI becomes embedded into everyday finance operations.
That was the focus of the recent Octane AI in Finance Summit, hosted at the beautiful Sofitel Auckland Viaduct Harbour, where more than 50 senior finance and business leaders joined us for an executive lunch and discussion on the future of finance. The event brought together CFOs, finance executives, transformation leaders and technology decision-makers to explore one of the biggest shifts the finance profession has faced in decades.
The Finance Function Is Being Rebuilt
The central theme of the summit was simple:
For years, finance technology helped organisations record transactions and report on performance. Today, we are entering a new era where technology can actively participate in finance workflows through AI-powered agents, automation and reasoning capabilities.
As I shared during the session:
“Your finance team today is probably the largest it will ever be.”
That statement generated significant discussion because many finance leaders are already seeing the early signs of change. AI is not simply improving productivity. It is fundamentally changing how finance work gets done.
The atmosphere throughout the summit was highly interactive, with attendees openly discussing both the opportunities and challenges that AI presents.
Unlike many AI events that focus on hype or future possibilities, the discussions centred on practical implementation and governance.
Finance leaders wanted answers to questions such as:
These are the conversations that matter because organisations are now moving from experimentation into execution.
One of the strongest themes throughout the event was the growing frustration many organisations have with AI pilots that never reach production.
Many companies have experimented with Copilots, chatbots and AI assistants, yet few have successfully embedded AI into core finance workflows.
The challenge is rarely the technology itself.
The challenge is governance, trust, security and operational integration.
Without proper controls, finance teams cannot rely on AI-generated outputs for critical business decisions.
That is why governance featured heavily throughout the summit discussions. AI in finance must operate within clear approval processes, audit trails and financial controls.
One of the most engaging sessions focused on what is rapidly becoming the next phase of finance transformation: Agentic AI.
Rather than simply generating content or answering questions, AI agents can perform specialised tasks across finance processes while remaining under human supervision.
During the summit, we explored how specialist AI agents can support functions such as:
The model is not about replacing controllers or finance leaders.
It is about allowing AI to perform the repetitive heavy lifting while finance professionals focus on judgment, oversight and strategic decision-making.
As discussed during the event:
“The agent does the work. The controller makes the call.”
Another major discussion centred on FP&A and planning.
Many finance teams continue to spend enormous amounts of time collecting data, updating models and preparing forecasts.
AI is now enabling finance teams to move much faster.
Rather than manually building every forecast scenario from scratch, finance professionals can leverage AI to:
The result is not fewer insights.
The result is deeper insights delivered faster.
Finance professionals spend less time preparing information and more time interpreting it.
Real Conversations. Real Challenges. Real Opportunities.
One of the most valuable aspects of the summit was the open discussion between attendees.
The questions being raised by finance leaders were remarkably consistent:
These discussions reinforced a growing reality:
The future winners will not necessarily be the organisations with the most AI tools.
They will be the organisations that implement AI with the strongest governance, the clearest business outcomes and the most disciplined execution.
The Auckland summit confirmed something we are seeing across Australia, New Zealand and the broader region. Finance transformation is accelerating.
The role of finance is evolving from reporting and administration toward insight, governance and strategic decision support. AI will increasingly handle repetitive processing, data preparation and workflow orchestration.
Finance professionals will spend more time applying judgment, providing business guidance and governing AI-assisted processes. That shift has already begun.
The strong engagement throughout the event generated significant interest in follow-up executive workshops, finance AI strategy sessions and deeper demonstrations of real-world use cases.
For Octane, the summit reinforced the importance of helping finance leaders move beyond AI experimentation and into practical, governed deployment.
The future of finance is not about adding more technology.
It is about building intelligent finance functions that can operate faster, make better decisions and scale effectively in an increasingly complex world.
To learn more about the Auckland AI in Finance Summit and upcoming executive events, visit Octane AI in Finance Summit Auckland.
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The finance function is being rebuilt.
That was the central theme of our recent AI in Finance Summit hosted by Octane at the Sofitel Auckland Viaduct Harbour.
With more than 50 senior finance and business leaders in the room, the discussion quickly moved beyond AI hype and into real-world execution.
The event was opened by Sheldon – NZ IBM Country Head and closing remarks by Dr Sara Bilal, Data & AI Lead at IBM NZ.
We explored:
✅ Agentic AI in Finance
✅ AI-assisted forecasting and planning
✅ Governance and auditability
✅ The future of the month-end close
✅ Why AI adoption is now a leadership issue, not just a technology issue
One statement that generated significant discussion:
“Your finance team today is probably the largest it will ever be.”
The future finance team will spend less time processing information and more time governing, interpreting and acting on it.
A huge thank you to everyone who attended, shared insights and contributed to an outstanding discussion on the future of finance.
The conversations have changed.
Finance leaders are no longer asking if AI will impact finance.
They are asking how quickly they can implement it responsibly.
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