Financial professionals share a sense of optimism about digital transformation, including artificial intelligence (AI).
A survey among members of ACCA sees a range of key organisational benefits in adopting digital technologies, including flexibility/adaptability, quality of products and services, sustainability performance, transparency and regulatory compliance (72 per cent).
However, the Digital Horizons survey – which garnered 1,074 responses from ACCA members around the globe – noted that financial professionals still see the main benefit of technology as offering efficiency/process improvements: 52 per cent ranked efficiency, internal process optimisation or cost savings in their top three objectives when adopting a new technology.
Only 18 per cent included competition-related reasons, such as responding to customer demands, enhancing market insights, introducing 24/7 capabilities, or maintaining competitive advantage.
Cost remains the top challenge when adopting technology, but organisational culture also remains a critical factor in successful adoption.
The survey did see a more mixed response to how technology supports personal objectives.
Productivity (cited by 85 per cent of respondents), collaboration (76 per cent) and career development (65 per cent) were all strong, but fears over job security were apparent, with only 30 per cent saying technology was supportive in that respect.
The impact on career development was notably positive, with many roundtable discussions revolving around access to learning and more flexible opportunities.
Leadership emerged as a key theme in both the survey and the roundtables.
Alistair Brisbourne, head of technology research at ACCA, said: "Leadership is generally considered to be a cornerstone of successful innovation and yet it can seem quite vague as a concept when applied to digital transformation. At its core, embracing digital leadership means fostering a culture of innovation, encouraging continuous learning, and being open to change.
"When we analyse the findings, it is clear that leadership is a fundamental trait of the most innovative organisations, and this tends to coincide with greater individual confidence amongst employees. Digital leaders inspire the confidence to embrace new tools and methodologies, such as AI and advanced analytics, which can dramatically transform processes."
ACCA members show a high level of trust in AI: 70 per cent agreed with the statement:"AI can increase the amount of time I have to focus on business-critical tasks" – only nine per cent disagreed, with 15 per cent neutral.
They were less sure of the idea of AI performing business-critical tasks (50 per cent agreeing, 21 per cent and 22 per cent disagreeing or neutral) but even so, the numbers reflected a sense of optimism.
Although just under one-fifth report the implementation of AI in their organisation, and another eight per cent are trialling initiatives, there are clearly great aspirations and a considerable opportunity to leverage these new capabili
