Beyond the Hype: 5 Game-Changing Ways the Office of the CFO Can Benefit from AI Right Now

The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has put today’s Office of the CFO in a uniquely challenging position.  

On one hand, AI represents a proven and powerful tool capable of generating greater speed, efficiency, insight and connectivity across the enterprise. But it also comes with a cloud of uncertainty — questions about which technologies are truly worth the investment, concerns surrounding its security and sustainability, and trepidation around whether AI’s current momentum is destined to last or just another bubble waiting to burst.  

But while it’s imperative for modern CFOs to tread carefully between innovation and prudence, AI doesn’t have to be an either-or proposition. For example, rushing to apply AI to every problem without the proper architecture or strategy backing it only serves to add to already fragmented and siloed business processes. Conversely, rejecting AI entirely ignores the new reality for CFOs — one that demands doing more with less while driving growth, preserving cash, reducing risk and delivering better, faster decisions. 

Approximately 2 in 3 CFOs say their organization is under pressure to accelerate ROI across their technology portfolio.

In other words, AI is best as a key ingredient rather than the whole recipe. But make no mistake: It’s a technology that’s forever baked-in to business strategy — even when the white-hot hype and investment trends inevitably cool.  

This blog is for any CFO or financial leader with a healthy interest in AI’s potential, but limited clarity on where to start. In it, you’ll explore some of the most responsible, functional and impactful ways CFOs can use AI automation across accounting and finance functions, with a focus on how Esker’s Agentic AI Suite for the Office of the CFO maximizes the technology’s effectiveness by connecting workflows, data, teams and decisions across the enterprise.  

Let’s dig in.

Best AI use cases for accounting & finance functions

1. Streamlining AP invoice processing & validation

Accounts payable (AP) is a foundational function in every business. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most manual (high volumes of data entry, validation against purchase orders, back-and-forth communication with suppliers to resolve discrepancies, etc).  

Why is this a key concern for today’s Office of the CFO? Because how AP invoices are processed and managed can have negative downstream impact on outcomes every CFO cares about — from early payment discounts and labor costs to cashflow and working capital to even the perseverance of critical business relationships. 

Fortunately, Esker offers several AI-powered tools that are built to solve the pains unique to traditional invoice handling. These include: 

Predictive supplier invoice coding 
Occurrences of non-PO invoices often require splitting the invoice between different cost centers and G/L accounts — a process that’s not only low-value and time-consuming but, even worse, prone to errors.  

Esker’s AI-based predictive invoice coding feature seamlessly addresses this issue by helping customers achieve the highest invoice recognition rate as quickly as possible for a fast ROI. Powered by patented machine-learning technology, it automatically recommends correct non-PO invoice coding, ensuring faster, more accurate processing, timely payments and stronger supplier relationships. 

Automated invoice batch separation 
When scanned or emailed invoices arrive in batches, AP teams once again are forced to stare down a manual process of separating the batch into individual invoices. Esker’s AI-powered document batch separation offers a welcome alternative — automatically identifying and splitting them even for multi-page invoices or invoices with attachments. This deep-learning technology saves time, reduces human error and ensures on-time supplier payments. 

Here again, CFOs get a stack of finance-friendly benefits that serve as essential building blocks for unifying their company’s growth strategies and execution.

Discover how Brunel, a global specialist delivering customized project and workforce solutions, increased its invoice processing speed by 60% using Esker’s AI-powered solutions.

Intelligent data extraction 
Manually keying in invoice data is slow, repetitive and prone to errors. As volumes grow, so do processing delays, reporting bottlenecks and employee frustration — all making it harder for AP and Finance teams to stay efficient and strategic. 

Esker’s AI-driven invoice processing replaces manual entry with intelligent data capture that continuously learns and improves accuracy. By automating extraction and validation, it facilitates: 

• Faster turnaround times with automated invoice capture and processing 
• Higher accuracy through continuous machine learning improvement 
• Lower costs by reducing manual labor and rework 
• Greater scalability without additional headcount 
• Happier employees focused on higher-value, strategic work 

2. Optimizing collections & cashflow forecasting 

Cashflow remains the lifeblood of any organization but predicting it with accuracy remains one of Finance’s biggest challenges. Static spreadsheets and delayed inputs often leave the Office of the CFO managing liquidity reactively, rather than strategically. One of the most common culprits of cashflow disruption — late payments — often stem from manual accounts receivable (AR) processes that rely heavily on spreadsheets, manual follow-ups, and inconsistent prioritization to manage cash collection. 

Esker Collections Management acts as a remedy for these common procedural bottlenecks by redefining AR strategy with AI-driven insights such as: 

Payment predictions  
With Esker, machine-learning models accurately predict when a customer will pay an outstanding invoice, helping AR teams increase the likelihood of timely payments and, over time, identify risk level categories based on past payment behavior to devise more targeted collections strategies based on priority customers.  

Additionally, these predictions help build reports (e.g., Collections Forecast and Projected Collection Activities) to increase visibility on expected payment and cash inflows to facilitate the end of month reporting and cash forecasts.

Suggested response & conversation summaries  
Large language models (LLMs) built into Esker’s solution help free up AR teams to spend more time on strategic collections. Response suggestions assist users in answering complex questions, while conversation summaries give users instant insight into a customer’s situation via bulleted summarizations of long-thread conversations.

3. Shoring up purchase requisitions

Protecting the organization from financial loss and reputational damage is a key concern for every CFO. And while they can’t prepare for every external disruption, they can work to ensure consistency and reliability when it comes to financial reporting, regulatory compliance, internal controls and other liabilities. 

This makes Procurement departments an obvious target for CFOs’ interest — particularly in detecting order errors related to unusual quantities or amounts for specific items and suppliers. Errors which, when undetected, can lead to overstocking, shortages, financial discrepancies or far worse. 

Esker solves this dilemma using machine-learning algorithms that analyze historical data and detect patterns, while the solution’s built-in AI Agent detects anomalies and alerts users when quantities for specific items and suppliers are deemed unusual. And for CFOs, “fewer order errors” is just another way of saying “better outcomes related to cost savings, operational integrity and business reputation.”

4. Improving financial data analysis within credit management 

When it comes to determining whether to establish a business relationship and how much credit to extend, no process matters more than credit management. Unsurprisingly, because the financial documents involved vary significantly in format and detail, the conventional way to manage this operation is equal parts tedious and unreliable.  

Esker’s AI Agent streamlines this financial assessment process by automatically extracting relevant data from financial documents and calculating financial ratios — significantly reducing the time spent on financial analysis. Additionally, GenAI within the platform can generate a concise financial analysis of the customer, equating to considerable time savings and more insightful credit decisions. 

Learn how Esker’s AI-powered solution helped Temperature Equipment Corporation (TEC) accelerate its turnaround time for open account credit applications by as much as 70%. 

5. Acting as a complementary coworker for financial teams 

Today’s AP and AR teams have never had as intense pressure to do more with less. Rather than having these essential financial departments struggle to locate data or customize existing reports to fit their unique requirements, Esker uses Agentic AI to find and present information instantly and without users having to learn how to build a report or a view. 

These AI Agents give users instant access to reliable data, which enables faster analysis and more informed decision-making. No complex reporting building or manual configuration needed — just instant insights when they’re needed most. 

Agentic AI moves financial teams to: 

• Autonomous execution vs. manual work 
• End-to-end orchestration vs. task assistance  
• Embedded intelligence vs. isolated insights  
• Adaptive workflows vs. static processes

For the CFO, this means: 

• Faster time to action across every value chain 
• AI that delivers real results, not hollow promises  
• A workforce that feels enhanced by technology, not overwhelmed by it 

Benefits of Esker’s Agentic AI Suite for the Office of the CFO 

In 2025 and beyond, the fragmentation and inefficiencies of point solutions will continue to reveal themselves as incompatible with the modern business landscape. Today’s Office of the CFO must forge a new path to strategic growth without blindly throwing their company onto the AI hype train or, conversely, rejecting the technology’s proven potential altogether.   

Esker offers an appealing alternative — one that connects the entire business, streamlines the flow of data, and offers the Office of the CFO real-time visibility, the ability to adapt quickly to change, and fully integrated systems that enable continuous improvement. 

Esker’s AI tools aren’t generic add-ons — they’re deeply integrated into workflows that matter most to the CFO and the entire enterprise. From source-to-pay to invoice-to-cash, Esker enables organizations to move beyond automation and into a new, more orchestrated operational model that nurtures: 

• End-to-end visibility: With data flowing between AP, AR, Procurement and Finance teams, Esker breaks down silos that hinder the day-to-day and long-term analytics that inform growth strategies. 
• Smarter, faster decision-making: Esker’s AI technology and agents surface real-time insights exactly when and where your teams need them. 
• ERP integration & data integrity: Esker integrates directly into all major ERPs, ensuring that master data is synchronized and scalability is optimized. 
• Risk reduction & global compliance: From automated tax coding to digital audit trails, running your business through Esker means you’re always in accordance with local regulations across multiple jurisdictions. 
• More productive & fulfilled staff: By reducing repetitive work, Esker’s AI automation solutions enable teams to focus on analysis, planning and high-value initiatives. 

Conclusion 

The modern CFO’s influence throughout the business expands far beyond financial stewardship, including everything from navigating uncertainty and risk to steering the organization toward a future of resilience and growth. But this increasing pressure to lead the charge often comes with significant doubts and limited clarity on where to start. 

67% of CFOs say they feel paralyzed at times by the number of decisions and volume of choices they’re expected to make. 

In this environment, the Office of the CFO must embrace AI not as a magic wand, stand-alone solution or some other too-good-to-be-true cure-all, but as a strategic copilot that can augment decision-making, automate routine tasks and deliver insights that were previously out of reach. Whether it’s managing cashflow, forecasting risk or nurturing critical business relationships, the use cases for AI are multiplying — and with them comes the opportunity to lead with unmatched clarity and confidence. 

Get in touch to learn how our Agentic AI Suite for the Office of the CFO can help your financial operations unlock new levels of strategy and orchestration — helping to keep your business agile, prosperous and resilient when it matters most.

Interested in learning more about Esker's solutions? Watch an on-demand demo of Esker's Source-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash solutions.