Page 37 - CMA Journal (July-August 2025)

Beyond Automation:
Focus Section

How Agentic AI

is Transforming

Finance Leadership

Finance is no longer a matter of crunching numbers in an Let’s consider if you
organization. It is about aligning business strategies, wanted to ask the
fostering growth, and facilitating innovation. Today, following question:
success depends upon transforming organizational
What caused our sales
design, managing complexity, and implementing
to drop last quarter?
strategies.
A Generative AI tool
With new trends shaping the world of Artificial might be able to
Intelligence, the role of the finance leader is evolving summarize the sales
once again. The rise of Agentic AI marks a pivotal turning information you gave it.
point in this landscape. With the possibilities unlocked by Helpful, sure—but still
Agentic AI, CFOs and finance executives now have the reactive. In contrast,
opportunity to redefine their roles. This technology Agentic AI goes further.
empowers them to drive transformation in ways once It can independently Shahbaz Sarwar, FCMA
unimaginable. explore different data Partner at Arabian
sources and spot Chartered Accountants, UAE
Agentic AI is a computer program designed to operate Member, Research &
patterns across depart-
independently to achieve specific goals with minimal Publications Committee, ICMA
ments. It can also
human intervention. They follow predetermined rules
compare market trends
and human inputs while being capable of initiating
and flag anomalies. Just like a human team, it can ask
actions and making decisions. These systems can also
follow-up questions or suggest next steps.
learn and adapt dynamically in real-world situations.
An Agentic AI system essentially forms a team. One agent
Imagine having an Executive Assistant who can instantly
might pull the latest sales data, another could analyze
summarize complex reports with just one prompt. That is
recent marketing campaigns, while a third investigates
the power of Generative AI. It is already changing how
supply chain metrics. These agents don’t work in
reporting and analysis work. Agentic AI takes it further. It
isolation. The sales, marketing, and supply chain agents
enables self-directed, connected decisions made
will autonomously speak and collaborate to identify the
together, much like humans. For CFOs, this is a chance to
root cause. Meanwhile, the AI team collectively builds a
reshape the role of finance in the organization.
detailed report with minimal input from humans.
But Agentic AI takes a leap forward. It allows systems to
Generative AI has demonstrated its value in producing
make their own interlinked decisions and collaborate in a
content, summarizing data, and generating insights
way that feels almost human. For CFOs, this isn’t just
within a specified, static context. However, the limitations
another tech upgrade. It’s a transformative shift that
of Gen AI become apparent once faced with multi-step,
places finance at the epicentre of innovation.
cross-functional problem-solving. This is where Agentic
Agentic AI is a different breed altogether. This goes AI performs well.
beyond producing content or condensing information. It Agentic AI systems function as a team of digital agents:
is about driving action. Think of it as a team of intelligent
• One digital agent pulls data from an ERP system.
digital agents that work on their own yet still collaborate
• A second digital agent pulls insights on the market
and handle complex problems without needing constant
from sales.
human oversight.
ICMA’s Chartered Management Accountant, Jul-Aug 2025 35