Finance teams are adopting AI faster than they're governing it. Variance narratives, reconciliations, board commentary — increasingly drafted with AI. That's a productivity win and an audit exposure at the same time, and auditors are starting to notice.
The traceability problem
If an AI tool helped produce a number that lands in a financial statement, can you show how it got there? Audit standards assume a documented chain from source to disclosure. "The AI summarized it" is not a control.
What to put in place now
- A finance AI policy defining permitted uses and mandatory human review
- Documentation of where AI touches reporting workflows
- Data rules: what financial information can enter which tools
- A review layer for any AI-generated figure or narrative before it's used
The teams that build this quietly this year will breeze through the conversation. The ones that don't will be retrofitting controls under audit pressure.