Where Do I Start With AI In Finance?
Unless you’ve been living under a spreadsheet, you’ll know that AI is already transforming the way we live and work.
And nowhere is this truer than in finance.
At the FBP Team, we say – “Once the robots arrive, the only thing left will be business partnering.”
That’s not just a strap line — it’s the future of our profession. The more tasks AI can take off your plate, the more opportunity there is for finance to step forward as a true commercial partner.
And I for one can’t wait.
I use AI every day. It’s made my work faster, sharper, and surprisingly — more human. Because when the machines do the grunt work, we get time back for the work that actually drives performance: building relationships, offering insight, and influencing decisions.
But let’s be honest — if you’re already overloaded, “experiment with AI” sounds like just another thing on your to-do list.
Most finance teams I work with are stretched thin. So, where do you start when you’re already maxed out?
Luckily Andrew is here to help. Or lean on my network to help you even more.
I recently came across a short, super-practical video by Nicolas Boucher, a finance professional who’s made it his mission to help the rest of us use AI in meaningful ways. I hae been lucky enough to speak with Nicolas seeral times oer the years as we both built our businesses. You might have seen him on LinkedIn though — he’s built a global audience of over 1 million finance followers – yes, you read that right!.
In this video, he walks through 6 simple, real-world ways to use AI in finance, including:
👉 Cleaning messy datasets
👉 Writing Excel and Power Query formulas
👉 Generating financial commentary
👉 Drafting stakeholder emails
👉 And even writing SQL queries so you don’t have to log a request with IT and wait for their next sprint!
And he shows it all live — no theory, no hype, just short, sharp examples you can use right away.
👉 Here’s the link to the video — it’s 10 minutes well spent.
Nicolas Boucher – 6 ways to use AI
After that, you’ll likely find yourself with more time to focus on the work that really matters: helping your organisation make better decisions.
Which, of course, is where Finance Business Partnering comes in.
And if you’re wondering how to get your team from ‘compliance to commercial’, check out part 3 of the newsletter below where I delve into what it is that we actually do at thefbpteam
PS: And yes, in case you were curious the picture is entirely AI generated in less than a minute.