How AI can safely support finance teams

The charity sector is in the middle of a transformation, led by artificial intelligence (AI) and its capacity for easy automation. In a sector that is stretched for time and resources, AI promises to reduce the burden of laborious administrative tasks, reduce human errors, and support data analysis.  

Charity finance professionals will likewise be looking forward to the potential productivity gains of AI as they balance rising demand for services, uncertain income streams, and changing legislation, including the new Charities SORP requirements.  

Indeed, in the CFO Mindset Report 2.0, compiled by financial software providers AccountsIQ, finance leaders expect AI and automation to be the biggest drivers of change by 2030, ahead only slightly of regulatory change.  

The report shows a growing acknowledgement of how AI will support the finance function, with fear of job losses due to AI falling from 24% in 2023 to just 13% in 2025. Rather, bigger concerns are its impact on ethical decision-making and data security. As AccountsIQ points out in its recent session at the Charity Digital AI Summit, these concerns do not represent “resistance to innovation but reflects a different governance reality”.  

Charity finance professionals will, rightly, be cautious about how AI is introduced to their finances, how it will be governed, and how data will be kept secure.  

In this article, we explore how charity financial professionals can put the right controls in place to ensure they reap all of the benefits of AI, while mitigating its greatest risks. 

You can download the full slides from AccountsIQ’s AI Summit session by clicking the button below. 

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How AI can safely support charity finance teams 

Start simple 

Some of the key risks of AI, such as less robust data security, can be readily mitigated, through the anonymisation of data and using only trusted third party tools that don’t use that data to train their wider model. For example, if you input data to get a certain result, it won’t inform results for other organisations and won’t be accessed by anyone else but your team.  

With these controls in place, charities should start small, testing AI tools in areas where there are not such high stakes, including automating their most time-consuming manual tasks or checking for data anomalies.        

“Easier wins in AI are already emerging where narrow use cases – like alerts or task automation – can apply simple machine learning safely within defined user roles,” explains AccountsIQ in the CFO Mindset Report 2.0. “This helps identify any anomalies or streamline repetitive tasks which usually involve the use of multiple clicks or stages.” 

Predictive and extractive AI can help charities analyse their data at speed, identify patterns, and forecast what might happen based on what has occurred before. But the success of these tools relies on clean data to produce relevant results, having clear AI use guidelines to mitigate risk, and regularly reviewing processes to ensure compliance.  

Prepare for regulation and scrutiny  

A big part of the challenge of using AI is the speed with which the technology is developing. It is difficult to be cognisant of its risks while pressure is mounting on organisations to use it to their advantage, saving time and maintaining a modern finance function that is fit-for-purpose. 

Under this pressure, it can be tempting for charities to choose AI tools quickly, without exercising proper caution. The CFO Mindset Report 2.0 found that 94% of finance professionals regretted strategic decisions they had made about implementing finance software due to time, cost, and stress implications.  

So instead of rushing to use AI now, charity finance leaders should work with their financial software providers to understand how they are planning to implement the technology and how it will help in the long-term, including when regulation is likely in play. In this ever-changing environment, shaped by AI, charities need to prioritise software “that can scale, integrate AI responsibly, and adapt to shifting demands”.  

“External regulators like the [Financial Conduct Authority] will be looking to see how firms are using AI and will also expect them to be adopting better financial tools to remain compliant,” advises AccountsIQ, adding that The EU AI Act is also setting the tone for AI responsibility.  

“This makes terminology such as ‘system of record’ and ‘finance ledger’ especially important, along with the safe and explainable use of algorithms, to avoid the risks of the so-called ‘AI black box’, where the decision-making process is opaque and difficult to understand.” 

Scrutiny on the charity sector’s finances is often high, with donors, supporters, volunteers, funders, and beneficiaries wanting to be sure that money is looked after responsibly. While AI is set to be a tool that helps charity finance teams improve efficiency, it should also be used to reinforce their commitment to transparency and responsibility, not undermine it.  

For more information on AI governance, you can check out AccountsIQ’s presentation, “Why AI is trusted cautiously in charity finance”, here. And to find out more about how to prepare safely for the impact of AI on charity financial reporting, you can download the CFO Mindset Report 2.0 below. 

Download the full report