Digital transformation has left few areas of business entirely untouched. Almost every corporate function, in all types of companies, has experienced technology-led productivity gains in the past decade. And the pace of change in business might only accelerate from here!

Indeed, as companies increasingly develop smart ways to leverage the vast amounts of data they generate through their day-to-day operations—and determine how best to automate business processes to improve efficiency and secure a competitive advantage—digital transformation is likely to continue gaining momentum.

The finance function is certainly not immune to this trend. Treasury and finance workloads, which are often data-heavy and repetitive, are highly suitable for improvement via modern analytics and advanced automation. Most finance functions have been collecting data and automating processes for years, with good results in most cases. But the idea of automation in finance tends to bring to mind simplistic chores that can be easily delegated to machines, while humans keep performing any work that requires judgment or thought.