ChatGPT And Its Impact On Finance Fraternity At Large..

ChatGPT or ‘Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer’ - the latest avatar of Artificial Intelligence, is the talk of the town. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have been around for sometime now, the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 threw open the possibilities of AI to almost everyone. 

ChatGPT is an Ai language model developed by OpenAI that is capable of generating human-like text based on the input it is given. The model is trained on a large corpus of text data running into hundreds of terabytes. It can generate responses to questions, summarise long texts, write stories and much more. All this with an easy to use interface that ensured that ChatGPT gained ‘1 million users’ within 5 days of its launch making it the fastest growing internet application in history. 

While examples abound of how teenagers in colleges are using ChatGPT to take online exams, how content writers are generating content in a blink of an eye, Speeches running into multiple pages could be generated in split seconds – on myriad topics. A veritable cookbook could now be written in just a few days and many more……list is infinite…

Having known chatGPT briefly, we are mulling over on a question – How will this powerful tool impact finance functions and the finance teams? 

There is a lot of interest generated amongst executives across companies. One of the leading CFO organisations conducted a survey for CFOs – ‘Will ChatGPT affect the financial function in any way’ - 65 per cent voted ‘Yes’, 25 per cent voted ‘Let’s See’ and only 10% voted ‘No’. 

How it can be useful to finance professionals. There are numerous examples of responses from ChatGPT that can be readily used to feed into many decision-making processes for finance executives. The table below provides few of the examples and scenarios where query can be run:

These are some of the examples of queries for which very detailed inputs can be obtained that can be used in a better and smart way. It actually seems like chatGPT is mirroring an expert consultant. On a lighter note, the job of a consultant is undoubtedly jeopardized. not sure though

This kind of information based on queries run in chatGPT can provide following advantages to finance teams:

1. Faster turnaround time: one can save time by automating routine tasks such as data entry, financial modelling, and report generation. This gives temas more time to focus on core activities.

2. Improved efficiency: It’s an inevitable benefit as Chat GPT is like a consultant which  can help finance professionals improve their productivity by providing them with quick and accurate answers to their questions. This results in faster decision making.

3. Better Insights: It  can analyse large amounts of financial data or what we know as ‘Big Data’ and provide insights that may be difficult for people to uncover. This can help in drawing trends, identify SWOT that may be missed using traditional methods.

4. Improved customer Experience: It can definitely be a great enabler for customer dlight as it can provide customers with personalised financial advice and support. This can improve the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction.

5. Competitive Advantage: As Chat GPT-3 is still a relatively new technology, finance professionals who learn to use it will have a competitive advantage over their peers. They will be better equipped to leverage the power of AI to solve complex financial problems and provide value to their clients.

Does this mean the robots are taking over again? The same old question arose a few years ago, which is intriguing, isn't it?

The simple answer is “No”

Will ChatGPT render many jobs in finance obsolete? Is it going to be a disruptive technology? Or a technology that can create new types of opportunities for all the people involved? 

Some experts say that for example, chatbots could potentially replace entire call-centre workforces that provide customer support in the industry. However, it is a long way to moderate finance workforce due to a few reasons. One reason is the fact that AI tools like ChatGPT cannot claim to be 100 per cent error-free – not yet anyway. They run with the disclaimer that a human being needs to check for consistency and accuracy of the final advice offered by the tool.

We ran a query on chatGPT asking, "Will it take finance jobs away?’…It gave a very modest answer, as below:

To conclude, Irrespective of when we will feel the impact of ChatGPT what is not up for debate is the unlimited potential of the application. It is a powerful tool that can help finance professionals automate routine tasks, improve their productivity, and make better data-driven decisions.By learning to use Chat GPT, finance professionals can stay ahead of the curve and provide more value to their clients. 

While new technologies may seem threatening to people in the beginning, seeing the long-term value and positive impacts will help in integrating the technology smoothly into the way we work.

The author is Chief Financial officer – India, Persolkelly India

Please note that the views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of the company. The information provided in this article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. The company does not endorse any products or services mentioned in this article. The reader should exercise their own discretion and judgment before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article.

Sanjeev Jha

Guest Author The author is Chief Financial officer – India, Persolkelly India