Automation Creates New Work for Finance Teams, AI Verification Takes 26% of Day

The promised time-saving benefits of automation in finance departments are being challenged by a new, significant workload. According to a recent survey by Datarails, finance teams are now spending an average of 26 percent of their workday verifying or correcting outputs generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

The phenomenon, termed the "verification burden," was highlighted in the "How AI is Changing Finance Departments" survey. Findings indicate that 96 percent of CFOs dedicate at least 10 percent of their work time to these checks, with 8 percent spending over half their day on verification tasks. This contradicts the initial goal of automation to reduce manual effort.

This added layer of oversight and the need for re-prompting or cross-checking AI results has also led to budget overruns. The survey found that 32 percent of CFOs reported their companies exceeded their AI budgets by at least 10 percent in the past 12 months, largely due to this verification requirement. This has turned AI from a time-saver into a potential cost center.

Datarails suggests that to manage AI spending and improve efficiency, companies should assign a single owner for AI expenditures, rationalize overlapping tools, and enhance the quality of data used by AI systems. This approach aims to bring the intended benefits of automation back into focus.