Chanley Howell Discusses Key Considerations for CFOs Employing Generative AI
Foley & Lardner LLP partner Chanley Howell is quoted in The Wall Street Journal article, “5 Things CFOs Should Know About Generative AI,” offering insight on the key considerations chief financial officers should assess before introducing generative artificial intelligence technology into their accounting operations.
Howell emphasized the importance of building guardrails to avoid risk, commenting that assumptions made by the technology may be wrong. He said that while certain variables used to help predict pricing can be controlled for, “a lot of factors are in a black box.”
Howell explained that CFOs need to understand how the AI reaches its conclusions. “If you get a result back that says you should cut your prices by 5%, the CEO and a lot of other people in the organization are going to say: ‘How did you arrive at that?’ It’s not going to work to just say, ‘The new AI tool we use said so,’” he commented.
“Particularly in today’s world, with high inflation and so much uncertainty about whether there will be a recession or not, whether it’s 5% one way or the other, it’s not going to necessarily be apparent on its face whether it’s right or wrong,” Howell noted, underlining the importance of understanding how AI’s conclusions are reached.
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