Thai companies are facing a decline in profit margins, leading many organisations to embrace new and emerging technologies to address these challenges.
PwC Thailand urges Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) to be leaders in this transformation and to adopt a digital mindset in their finance functions and other parts of their organisations in order to get the most out of tech investments.
Dr Kasiphon Aphimukkhunanon, Consulting Partner at PwC Thailand, said that many leading companies have adopted technology in sales, marketing and operations to improve their profit margins as raw material costs have continued to rise over the years.
"At a time when disruptive technology is rapidly evolving, the role of CFOs is quickly transforming from number crunchers to strategic advisors," Dr Kasiphon said.
"More CFOs must shift their mindsets to become effective advocates of technology-driven growth, which includes exploring the benefits of disruptive technologies such as big data, social network technology, mobility technology and cloud technology," he said.
According to PwC's August 2023 Pulse Survey, 89% of CFOs in the US say that a top challenge in their business transformation is striking the right balance between cost cutting and investing for growth. Financial chiefs are encouraged to accelerate digital value, which involves maximising returns from digital investments in order to reinvest in strategic growth initiatives.
This approach involves integrating technology into every aspect of the business, including the use of cloud solutions to streamline and enhance the customer journey. CFOs should also prioritise long-term sustainable growth, even if it means sacrificing short-term benefits, the survey showed.
"Effective CFOs in digital era must change themselves from traditional to the innovative ones," Dr Kasiphon said.
CFOs can play key roles in GenAI adoption
Although technology breakthroughs such as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) are making shockwaves across industries, the rate of adoption is low.
The article 'Future of finance: How the finance function is turning tech into a competitive advantage' by PwC US found that only 16% of businesses were piloting GenAI programmes, and 42% said they haven't even begun implementing GenAI at all. This is also evident among Thai business leaders as 45% of CEOs haven't adopted GenAI across their companies in the last 12 months.
While many companies are hesitant to be early adopters of innovative solutions like GenAI, the technology has shown to support organisations in various finance areas, such as intelligent claims processing, tax compliance, credit limit overrun prediction, auto completion of sales orders and intelligent credit unblocking.
CFOs can play a crucial role in their organisation's GenAI strategy. By understanding the contexts in which the technology can be used, they can drive its implementation and ensure its successful integration into various financial processes. This includes leveraging GenAI to enhance financial analysis, forecasting and decision-making.
CFOs can also collaborate with other departments to identify opportunities where GenAI can optimise financial operations and improve overall business performance.
"GenAI is an innovative solution for organisations, but most CFOs are still not taking the risk of being first movers in adopting it. Some CFOs are satisfied being followers, observing other firms experimenting with innovative solutions in order to ensure their success before adoption, while they could've supported their companies in realising the potential of their technology investments themselves," Dr Kasiphon said.