Perhaps signaling good news for businesses that want to use RPA more in finance, a recent report found people trust robots with their money. Oracle and personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi polled nearly 10,000 consumers and business leaders around the world and found respondents receptive to the idea of automation and robots being involved in their finances. The research also indicates people are rethinking the role and focus of corporate finance teams.
Money and Machines: 2021 Global Study found the Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on business leaders. Results show 90 percent worry about how the pandemic affected their organizations, with 38 percent concerned mainly about budget cuts.
According to the research, 85 percent of business leaders want help from robots for finance tasks, including finance approvals (43 percent); budgeting and forecasting (39 percent); reporting (38 percent); and compliance and risk management (38 percent).
Eighty-seven percent of business leaders say organizations that don’t rethink financial processes face risks, including falling behind competitors (44 percent); more stressed workers (36 percent); inaccurate reporting (36 percent); and reduced employee productivity (35 percent).
It’s not just businesses that see the value of robots, however. The Oracle report also found more than half of consumers (53 percent) trust a robot more than themselves to manage finances and 63 percent trust them over human personal financial advisors.
“Financial processes in our personal and professional worlds have become increasingly digital for many years and the events of 2020 have accelerated that trend,” said Juergen Lindner, senior vice president, global marketing, Oracle. “Digital is the new normal and technologies such as artificial intelligence and chatbots play a vital role in managing finance. Our research indicates that consumers trust these technologies to accelerate their financial well-being over personal financial advisors and business leaders see this trend reshaping the role of corporate finance professionals.”