FIC
taming your robots
The art of finance Tech has not changed the science of finance, but it is changing the way the finance function creates value. BY CHUMA MXO
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Embedding AI, machine learning and smart bots into any financial solution doesn’t change the fundamental science of finance. But what it actually does change, is the fundamental art of finance,” said Akesh Lalla, director of cloud solutions at Oracle South Africa, at the Finance Indaba Conversation ‘Real-life stories from the automation revolution’. Akesh added that business gets done better, faster, risk is removed, and more decisions are made with confidence. He also noted that in the past year, tremendous stress and change has been thrust on all of us, and the speed of change is only going to increase. He shared the changes that Oracle has gone through. “We have moved from a traditional product company to a customer service organisation. We’ve actually gone through this
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journey of embedding all of this technology within our organisation and we are utilising that experience to assist our customers on their journeys using our Oracle Software as a Service (SaaS) applications,” he said. Akesh noted that something they are really proud of at Oracle is that, “Over the last several quarters, with the help of our AI, machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA), we’ve managed to close our books, submit our numbers, and have our conference call on day 10. Not 10 working days, but 10 days after the close of our quarter.” Aarti Mohan, director of business development (ERP) at Oracle, explained that AI is already here. “It’s not far away, it’s right here right now,” she said. She added that at Oracle they did a survey called Money and Machines last year, to see if
