Are AI CFOs a threat to the fractional CFO business?

Right now, if the value you create as a fractional CFO is less than an AI can emulate you're in trouble.

The biggest gap at the moment with AI is not just experience and gut feel. It's experience + gut feel + context.

- Experience across different industries
- Gut feel when something doesn't look right
- Context of where the business is, their challenges and their ambitions

AIs may be getter smarter. But do they have MORE to offer than you do? Probably not

I think AI and machine learning overall are actually a complement to financing and CFO professionals. It has a lot of applications and tactical operations, and the more that we get comfortable leveraging AI and machine learning for prescriptive and predictive analytics, the more it increases our value as finance professionals.

However, I don't think it's going to take the job of a CFO or Fractional CFO. It's meant to upskill us, take us out of the low-value data analysis business, and do formula work that the business doesn't care about. It will move us to higher-value activities like collaboration, connection, and building community.

Probably not until it can pass a basic accounting test: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370211135_The_ChatGPT_Artificial_Intelligence_Chatbot_How_Well_Does_It_Answer_Accounting_Assessment_Questions

But ... that might come sooner than many of us think:
https://aijourn.com/framework-to-design-an-ai-finance-accounting-assistant/

I don’t think so. The value a fractional CFO brings to the table is not transaction-based like a bookkeeper or Controller, but insightful action. For example, AI can probably tell you sales are down because X, Y and Z, but can it tell you what to do about it and the context in which the sales are down? AI will be able to tell you that sales are down at (let’s say) your coffee shop, but it probably won’t be able to say that this drop is most likely caused by a competitor opening up down the street or temporary road construction in front of the store. Adding context with insight allows an Executive to take the most appropriate action. In addition, a fractional CFO will partner with the Executive to put together and execute a plan of action for which resources will be held accountable. 

Yes and no. I think they will change the way we work, manage people, and will automate some of the base stuff fractional CFOs do but you will still need a human to oversee it. The human will manage relationships and help with the more complex stuff like strategy, fundraising Relationships, etc.