Level Up With Gen AI – Insights From Top Finance Performers

In the rapidly evolving landscape of finance, one thing is clear: The advent of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) is not just a technological advancement, it’s also reshaping core finance operations. It’s a catalyst for transformation, revolutionizing how finance organizations level up and execute their strategies. Those bold enough to embrace this new era can unlock unprecedented opportunities, accelerate their evolution and gain a profound edge in predicting what lies ahead.  

Digital World Class^® organizations – where efficiency and innovation converge – operate at significantly lower costs, with leaner teams, and excel with speed, foresight, and strategic precision. In contrast to their peers, the gap will continue to widen between those prepared to harness Gen AI’s capabilities and those lagging in adoption. It’s a defining moment where proactive adaptation isn’t just advantageous – it’s essential for survival in the competitive landscape of modern finance. 

Top finance organizations invest in value creation 

Our annual Digital World Class^® analysis reveals the characteristics of top performers, what differentiates them and how they achieve their advantage. Specifically, these organizations invest for value creation – leveraging technology and talent to deliver superior financial capabilities and enterprise support. Four traits stand out: 

First, they provide more proactive and better-informed financial leadership because they are more knowledgeable about the businesses they support. They are more likely to have finance business rotations as part of ongoing career development, and they have more mature business partnering capabilities. As a result, they have earned greater credibility, respect and influence across the company. 

Second, they operate at a significantly lower cost. Finance is the only business function that lowered overall costs from 2023 to 2024. But the Digital World Class^® advantage isn’t just about reducing overall costs – it’s about targeting the right costs. For example, these organizations reduced “other” expenses by 35% – enabled by superior analytical decision support and cost management practices.  

Third, they invest significantly more in enabling technologies – including Gen AI and other intelligent automation technologies – to enable greater efficiency. Digital World Class^® organizations spend 1.5 times more on technology as a percentage of total operating (labor, outsourcing, technology and other) costs – even though they spend less overall on technology than the peer group.  

Finally, they continue to invest in and focus on creating value, significantly reducing their effort on transactional activities. They have 30% fewer resources devoted to transactional activities than the peer group and reinvest in higher-value activities such as planning and analysis and risk management. 

Understanding the Digital World Class^® advantage 

Digital World Class^® finance organizations operate at a 47% lower cost than traditional finance organizations – an advantage that held steady in 2024. Yet, they deliver more value than the peer group, extending their outperformance well beyond cost. 

Top-performing finance organizations rationalize their technology environments. As a result, their technology costs are 11% lower than their peers. But they also invest in modern architecture and emerging technologies – such as Gen AI, smart automation, advanced analytics and collaboration tools – further reducing labor cost. 

As a percentage of revenue, Digital World Class^® finance cost dropped or remained even for labor, outsourcing and “other” in 2024, while it grew for technology. The reduction in other costs was notable – where the Digital World Class^® advantage grew from 70% to 81% over the past year. Top performers lowered facilities and operating costs by reducing office space and renegotiating contracts, cut travel costs by 47% by increasing the use of virtual options, and decreased training costs by 69% by leveraging more cost-effective methods.  

Although Digital World Class^® finance organizations spend less on technology as a percentage of revenue than peers due to higher deployment efficiency, they have a far more technology-intensive operating model. They spend a larger component (15.4%) of their total operating cost on technology than companies within the peer group, which invests 41% less. Digital World Class^® finance organizations have traditionally run with far fewer full-time equivalent (FTE) staff than the peer group. In 2024, that gap remained steady at 50%.  

In fact, Digital World Class^® finance organizations have fewer total FTEs per billion in revenue than peer group organizations have in transaction processing roles alone. Digital World Class^® finance organizations operate with 64% fewer FTEs in transactional roles, but just 32% fewer FTEs in financial planning and analysis roles, and 29% fewer in specialist finance roles. This shift of resources into higher-value roles, combined with increased automation, explains why they can deliver substantially more and do so faster. For example, they require significantly less time to close the books, complete the budget and prepare the midterm operating cash flow forecast. 

Gen AI will increase the Digital World Class^® advantage. According to our analysis, Gen AI will reduce finance costs by 42% and boost finance staff productivity by 48% – if organizations know how best to deploy it. However, no one can adequately measure the exponential value of innovation driven by the most ambitious applications of Gen AI and the new possibilities it brings. 

Digital World Class^® finance organizations deliver greater business value by outperforming the peer group in effectiveness, experience and enablement. Our analysis highlights areas of significant advantage. It is important to recognize that Gen AI will have a profound impact – quickly extending the performance advantage. 

Digital World Class^® finance organizations also outpace the peer group in key dimensions, including efficiency and automation. Our analysis found relevant examples in both areas – again, points of advantage that are likely to grow along with the adoption of Gen AI. 

Leading finance organizations are better prepared to capitalize on Gen AI 

Capitalizing on Gen AI’s potential requires modern architecture, a robust data foundation and clear value orientation. Our analysis shows that Digital World Class^® finance organizations are well ahead of the peer group in establishing these capabilities. 

They have already taken significant steps to modernize their infrastructure – and not just by automating transactional processes. For example, they are two times more likely to provide operations managers with online, self-service access to reporting applications for ad hoc inquiries. Superior technology enablement also means they can scale new capabilities faster and more effectively. 

Digital World Class^® finance organizations are 19% more likely to use standard data and coding definitions, improving the subsystems and general ledger environment, significantly reducing system and data complexity – a major inhibitor of digital transformation – and the ability to benefit from Gen AI and other smart technologies. They are also more likely to have ownership of finance data governance. 

Finally, the combination of technology enablement and relevant skills fuels value creation. For example, analysts in Digital World Class^® finance organizations are 2.3 times more likely to have direct operational work experience, and they spend less time compiling data versus analyzing it. This creates more time for building productive business partnering relationships that raise finance’s stature in the organization. This is where Gen AI is poised to enhance finance operations and create value for the enterprise. 

These organizations don’t just have the foundation in place, they are also moving aggressively to pursue Gen AI. In a recent poll, one-fourth of executives said they are leveraging Gen AI through customized, native Gen AI platforms (e.g., MS Azure and Amazon Bedrock) – pursuing not only incremental improvements through existing vendors, but bolder transformational changes that move them toward Digital World Class^® and beyond.    

Accelerate your finance transformation 

Finance leaders are at a pivotal point. Those who wait for a Gen AI mandate from above or for information technology partners to catch up will see their performance fall further behind. On the other hand, those who act assertively and with speed to capitalize on the breakthrough potential of Gen AI can close the gap – and even leapfrog today’s top performers. Following these essential transformation principles will accelerate your finance transformation to Digital World Class^® finance performance: 

Take the lead – don’t follow. Finance leaders have a unique opportunity to move beyond trusted business partners and become the catalyst for driving breakthrough performance for both the function and enterprise. But this requires more than incremental changes. Finance leaders must reimagine how work gets done. 

Your approach matters. To realize meaningful Gen AI-driven productivity gains, finance leaders must take a top-down enterprise approach to identify and prioritize use cases that will have the most significant impact on the business versus a bottoms-up approach that, at best, will yield incremental improvements. 

Know where you stand. Successful transformation requires a strong understanding of your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. To realize the full potential of Gen AI, your organization must know where you have gaps in finance strategy, technology, skills, data management and governance practices. 

Create the capacity to focus on breakthrough performance. Dedicate resources responsible for driving change, and make sure they have the time to focus on it and the mandate to reimagine work that can lead to breakthrough performance. If you depend on people with other day jobs or the same resources that are supporting other key initiatives, you will struggle to build or maintain momentum. It is essential, but also incredibly difficult, to educate and mobilize the entire enterprise. At the same time, employ Gen AI to free many other resources from the mundane to focus on more strategic, value-added business initiatives. 

Architect your Gen AI future with confidence 

The Hackett Group helps you explore, understand and implement Gen AI as part of a comprehensive, intelligent digital operations strategy. Learn about: 

AI XPLR^™: Our groundbreaking AI XPLR^™ platform provides critical guidance for executives. Based on findings from hundreds of Gen AI assessments and deployments, AI XPLR^™ quantifies your Gen AI potential and produces a comprehensive readiness assessment and detailed road map. 

Gen AI transformation services: Our consultants use leading-edge data, insights and metrics from AI XPLR^™ to architect your Gen AI journey. From ideation to implementation, we develop comprehensive plans to capture, deploy and mobilize your organization to capitalize on your best opportunities. 

Executive Advisory programs: Our advisors counsel executives through their most critical and impactful decisions – exploring Gen AI opportunities, selecting providers, piloting solutions and more. Members have access to the collective knowledge of the world’s best businesses and vendors through personalized, advisor-led guidance and cutting-edge Gen AI research in our member center, Hackett Connect^™.  

Download the report by Shawn Fitzgerald, Jim O’Connor and Tom Willman to learn more about how Digital World Class^® finance organizations deliver greater business value and are better prepared to maximize the benefits of Gen AI.