AI Just Joined Your Finance Team. Now Give It the Right Job.
When I talk to finance leaders about AI, I hear the same comments over and over:
“It’s powerful, but I can’t run a financial process with it because it’s inconsistent.”
“I use it to edit my emails, but that’s about it.”
“My ERP runs AI on my data, but the insights aren’t great.”
That hesitation is understandable. Inconsistency is the bane of finance. If you can’t explain exactly how data was treated, you can’t trust the output — and you certainly can’t defend it to a board, an auditor, or your CEO.
But I think this fear comes from a misunderstanding of what AI is actually good at.
Instead of thinking about AI as a replacement for your controller (which is a heavy lift), think of it as a new team member — one you’ve probably never had before.
And like any new hire, the key is knowing their strengths and weaknesses.
Your New Team Member: Strengths and Weaknesses
This new team member can be a:
Skilled coder across a broad set of tools and languages
Insightful journalist of your data
Sharp editor for drafts, narratives, and explanations
But should never be your:
Process runner for critical workflows without guardrails
Decision-maker for repeat judgment calls over time
System of record or source of truth
AI shouldn’t run your financial processes.
AI should design them, review them, and explain what’s happening inside them.
In the next three posts, I’ll break down each of these roles in detail:
AI as a coder that builds repeatable financial logic
AI as a journalist that explains what happened in your business
AI as a sharp editor before reports hit the board
Each role stands on its own. Together, they change how finance teams operate.
Let me help you
I’m Chris Heaton. I have 10 years of enterprise software development experience followed by 15 years leading SaaS companies as a CFO. I know what business leaders need to see — and I know how to build the connectivity that make it possible.
My team at LastMileAutomated helps companies become lean, automated, and data-driven by turning isolated systems into a single, powerful enterprise source of truth.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start seeing:
chris@lastmileautomated.com
lastmileautomated.com
