The Future of Finance in the Age of AI: Insights from Beyond the Black
Las Vegas NV | September 2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not coming—it’s already here. And it’s moving faster than any technology in history. At Beyond the Black in Las Vegas, I had the privilege of addressing thousands of finance professionals about how AI is transforming the industry and what leaders must do to futureproof finance in this new era.
For two decades, I’ve advised global brands on how to adapt to generational shifts and emerging technologies. When I started, it was about Millennials—the first generation raised with the internet at home. Then came Gen Z—the iPhone generation—whose phones became appendages to their bodies and rewired culture. Now, a new generation is arriving: Generation Alpha, the AI generation.
But this conversation isn’t just about the next wave of consumers. It’s about how finance leaders today can harness AI to automate processes, unlock growth, and ensure they’re not left behind.
From Marketing to AI: My Personal Journey
I’ve built my career at the intersection of technology, consumer behavior, and business strategy. As the founder of Suzy, a venture-backed consumer intelligence platform, my job has been to help brands listen to consumers in real time and move at the speed of culture.
When ChatGPT exploded onto the scene, my instinct was to hand it off to engineers and wait for them to integrate AI into our product. But nothing happened. That’s when I realized: AI is not just another technology upgrade. It’s a fundamental shift in how humans interact with computing.
So I made a personal decision: before using AI to transform my business, I would use it to solve a problem I deeply cared about—extending my own life.
Building a Personal AI Healthbot
I gathered 25 years of medical records—MRIs, X-rays, bloodwork, doctor’s notes—and fed them into a custom-trained AI model. I told it to act like a top Johns Hopkins physician, with one mission: keep me alive.
The first question I asked was, “If I’m going to die in the next five years, what’s the most likely cause?” The answer was brutally honest—and deeply personalized. Unlike WebMD, which makes us all think we’re dying, my healthbot analyzed markers from blood tests six years ago and provided detailed dossiers for specialists.
That experience revealed the true power of AI: the ability to take vast, unstructured data and turn it into actionable intelligence.
For finance leaders, this lesson is clear. Just as my healthbot helps extend life, your job is to extend the life of your company. And AI is your most powerful ally.
Why AI Matters for Finance Professionals
Finance has always been about data—balance sheets, profit and loss statements, cash flow models. But AI doesn’t just crunch numbers faster; it changes the role of finance entirely.
Instead of manually consolidating reports, you can talk to your data and get instant insights.
Instead of reactive analysis, AI can forecast scenarios based on historical benchmarks.
Instead of being buried in transactions, finance teams can become strategic storytellers who influence executive decision-making.
Think about it: the finance function is often tasked with “keeping the company alive.” What AI allows you to do is identify the levers that matter most—and model how pulling those levers affects growth.
The AI Value Chain: From Chips to Agents
To understand where AI is headed, it helps to break down the AI value chain:
Infrastructure – At the base are chips, primarily GPUs made by Nvidia. Originally designed for video games, these chips now power AI. Demand is so high that tech giants are investing in alternative energy to meet compute requirements.
Large Language Models (LLMs) – OpenAI’s GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, Meta’s LLaMA—these models process trillions of data points and generate human-like responses. They are improving at an unprecedented rate, with IQ benchmarks jumping dramatically in just one year.
Data – Data is the differentiator. Whether it’s healthcare records, financial statements, or consumer behavior, the organizations that control proprietary datasets will unlock the most value.
Applications – This is where the magic meets the end user: chatbots, copilots, generative design tools, financial analysis platforms. The application layer translates raw AI power into usable solutions.
For finance, the most transformative layer right now is the application layer. Tools are emerging that allow you to query financial data conversationally, visualize patterns, and even generate interactive reports for stakeholders.
The End of the Knowledge Economy
For decades, success in finance (and many other professions) has been tied to the knowledge economy—memorization, regurgitation, and the ability to process information. Accountants learned tax codes. Analysts built models. Lawyers memorized case law. Radiologists learned to read X-rays.
AI disrupts this foundation. If information can be recalled instantly, knowledge itself is no longer the differentiator. Instead, the value shifts to:
Creativity
Critical thinking
Problem-solving
Communication
Finance professionals who embrace this shift will thrive. Those who cling to the old model risk obsolescence.
Forecasting the Future with AI
One of the most powerful applications of AI in finance is forecasting. CFOs and FP&A teams often struggle to predict beyond six months, especially in volatile markets. AI changes that equation.
By analyzing historical benchmarks, peer companies, and real-time data, AI can model likely outcomes with greater accuracy than traditional methods. Think of it as the financial equivalent of my healthbot: if past patterns suggest cheeseburgers lead to heart disease, you adjust behavior. In business, if past patterns show inefficiencies in working capital, you adjust strategy.
Forecasting powered by AI doesn’t just improve accuracy—it gives executives the confidence to make bold decisions.
Talking to Your Data
Imagine asking:
“Why did our Q3 margins decline?”
“What would happen if we reduced headcount by 5%?”
“Which product line has the highest lifetime value?”
And receiving instant, data-driven answers without building models from scratch.
This is the talk-to-your-data revolution, and it is the biggest unlock for finance. It allows leaders at every level—not just analysts—to understand the math equation of the business. With controlled access, you can democratize insights across the organization while maintaining compliance and security.
The Rise of AI Agents
We’re moving from tools to agents. Unlike simple automations, which go step-by-step, AI agents can dynamically navigate multiple systems to achieve a goal.
For example:
A finance agent could ingest sales data, reconcile it with expenses, forecast revenue, and flag anomalies—without human intervention.
A compliance agent could monitor transactions across markets and alert leaders to regulatory risks in real time.
By 2028, 75% of finance leaders expect AI agents to be routine in operations. Whether or not those leaders fully understand what agents are, the shift is undeniable.
Overcoming Barriers: Privacy, Security, and Trust
Of course, not every finance team can simply plug in ChatGPT and upload sensitive data. Concerns about privacy, compliance, and security are real.
The answer is not to sit on the sidelines but to experiment responsibly:
Start with personal AI projects—as I did with my healthbot. Solve a problem you care about, gather the right data, and build something.
Explore low-risk business applications like expense automation or internal reporting before moving to more sensitive use cases.
Focus on data governance—because in AI, your advantage is only as strong as the data you control.
Why Finance Leaders Must Become Builders
The biggest lesson I’ve learned on my AI journey is simple: you can’t fully understand AI until you build something with it. Reading white papers isn’t enough. Watching demos isn’t enough. You need hands-on experience.
For finance professionals, that might mean:
Building a chatbot trained on your team’s historical forecasts.
Creating an AI assistant for vendor contract management.
Designing a family chatbot for personal use, just to learn the mechanics.
The skills you develop by building—even in small ways—will set you apart in the marketplace.
What This Means for the Future of Work
The future of finance will not be defined by who can reconcile accounts faster. AI can already do that. It will be defined by who can frame the right questions, identify the right problems, and use AI to solve them.
Knowledge work is being redefined. We’re moving toward an age where:
Small teams (or even individuals) can achieve what once required hundreds.
Companies will be leaner, faster, and more profitable.
Success will hinge on adaptability and creativity, not rote memorization.
Just as the internet created new business models, and the iPhone created entire industries, AI will transform finance, business strategy, and consumer behavior simultaneously.
Conclusion: The Right Side of Change
When I stood on stage at Beyond the Black in Las Vegas, my message was clear: AI is not optional. Whether we embrace it or resist it, the future is moving forward.
For finance leaders, the choice is stark:
Stay reactive, limited by outdated processes.
Or build, experiment, and position yourself on the right side of change.
The future of finance is not just about numbers. It’s about using AI to turn those numbers into narratives that drive decisions, inspire teams, and unlock growth.
This isn’t about hype. It’s about reality. AI is bigger than the internet. Bigger than the iPhone. Bigger than any shift we’ve seen before.
The only question that matters is: will you lead the transformation, or will you be disrupted by it?
