Corporate Treasuries Are Slow to Adopt AI, Survey Finds

Treasury departments in global companies are struggling to adopt artificial intelligence tools, according to a Crisil Coalition Greenwich survey, underscoring how slowly the technology is penetrating a critical function in corporate finance.

Crisil’s survey of 100-plus firms from the US, Europe and Asia found fewer than 10% of treasury teams use AI for core functions like financial forecasting and fraud detection. Half haven’t started using AI at all, even as global companies ramp up spending on the technology, according to a February report.

That’s due largely to a lack of in-house expertise and messy underlying data, according to the financial services research firm.

“Corporate treasury departments aren’t getting the productivity boost they anticipated from their investments in artificial intelligence,” wrote Tobias Miarka, head of corporate banking research and author of the report.

Corporate treasury teams sit at the heart of a company’s finances. They’re responsible for managing everything from a firm’s cash and liquidity to its capital structure and debt obligations, as well as hedging interest-rate and foreign-exchange exposures and owning relationships with banks and lenders.

A lack of expertise, which is the biggest factor limiting the adoption of AI within corporate treasury, can be addressed through hiring and training, the report found. But the second-largest barrier is “integration hurdles” including “compatibility with existing systems and processes.”

That’s where the quality of financial data comes in — including figures on cash flows, balance sheets and projections — as well as the pipelines that carry all that information across the firm.

“About 60% of large global corporates around the world expect to increase their investments in AI,” Miarka said. “For companies that take this step without addressing foundational issues of data management and governance, it could be a case of throwing good money after bad.”

Crisil Coalition Greenwich surveyed more than 100 corporate treasurers at companies with more than $500 million in turnover.

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