Unlocking Operational Efficiency with AI in Accounting Departments - with Greg Cucino of RoundTable
🎯 Summary
Podcast Episode Summary: Unlocking Operational Efficiency with AI in Accounting Departments - with Greg Cucino of RoundTable
This 24-minute episode features Greg Cucino, Managing Director at Roundtable Strategy Advisors, discussing how Artificial Intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the CFO role and operational efficiency within finance and accounting departments, moving them from historical reporting to forward-looking strategy.
1. Focus Area
The primary focus is the application of AI (specifically LLMs and emerging Agentic AI) within Finance and Accounting operations to eliminate manual bottlenecks, enhance strategic decision-making for the C-suite (especially the CFO), and transform processes like M&A due diligence. The discussion heavily contrasts current reactive AI capabilities with the anticipated power of proactive Agentic AI.
2. Key Technical Insights
- Reactive vs. Agentic AI: Current adoption is largely reactive (e.g., using ChatGPT/Copilot for emails or immediate data analysis prompts). The future lies in Agentic AI, where systems proactively analyze complex data (like financial reports) to anticipate needs, a capability Cucino estimates is about 8–12 months away from widespread commercial viability.
- AI in M&A Due Diligence: AI is already being used to accelerate M&A deal sourcing by scraping public data (SEC filings, social media, AngelList) for predictive analysis and sentiment, significantly reducing the time required for initial screening and even complex quantitative tasks like building Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) models.
- NetSuite Integration: Roundtable leverages deep expertise in NetSuite, a cloud-based ERP, to streamline processes and integrate AI solutions that optimize business performance where data already resides digitally.
3. Business/Investment Angle
- CFO Role Shift: AI is enabling CFOs to shift focus from analyzing historical data (what happened yesterday) to forward-looking strategy (what should happen next), providing near-instantaneous forecasts (e.g., cash flow projections weeks out).
- Efficiency Bottlenecks: Across all company sizes (from startups to Fortune 500), the biggest pain points remain manual data entry, invoice processing, expense reporting, and reconciliation, which consume significant headcount and time.
- M&A Disruption: AI is democratizing deal sourcing, allowing smaller firms to potentially find transactions previously only visible to larger private equity firms, though this also raises competitive concerns as large firms adopt the technology for due diligence acceleration.
4. Notable Companies/People
- Greg Cucino (Roundtable Strategy Advisors): Guest expert, providing first-hand experience on AI adoption strategies for CFOs and developing proprietary AI platforms for financial analysis.
- Roundtable Strategy Advisors: The sponsoring firm, specializing in CFO and NetSuite services, currently beta-testing AI platforms that provide C-suite analysis in seconds.
- Agent Smith: Mentioned as an example of an existing AI-based assistant in the financial sector using predictive analysis on public data, reportedly working within SEC guidelines to suggest market trades.
5. Future Implications
The industry is rapidly moving toward Agentic AI assistants that possess deep contextual understanding of a company’s data, enabling proactive scenario planning and risk identification (like fraud or variance analysis). However, the conversation stresses that human intuition, critical thinking, and industry context remain irreplaceable, cautioning against the immediate elimination of headcount solely due to AI adoption. The next year will see these pilot programs mature into commercially viable, forward-facing tools.
6. Target Audience
This episode is most valuable for Finance Professionals (CFOs, Controllers, Finance Directors), Technology Leaders implementing ERP/AI solutions, and Venture Capital/Private Equity professionals interested in how AI is changing deal sourcing and due diligence efficiency.
🏢 Companies Mentioned
💬 Key Insights
"No matter what industry that you're in, these reasoning models are really, really bad at agility, you know, for whatever ROI you might gain somewhere else."
"The LLM may tell you, hey, this is a bad deal. There's why it's only going to an IRR of 3 to 4%. Well, a person physically might come in and analyze that model and say, yeah, okay, it's going to an IRR of 4%. But what it's not understanding is the, you know, the human aspect of it is this company has a great, you know, moral code. It has a great atmosphere. It has a great team that works collaboratively. No AI system, no matter how sophisticated it is today, is going to understand that."
"We do have the capability. We have the full capability of the AI creating a DCF model. So it's not just qualitative, it's quantitative as well."
"What you're talking about is here today, and it's not conversational AI. What everybody's talking about with the proactive analysis is agentic AI."
"Today there is no proactive AI. If you hear somebody say, oh, we have proactive AI, it's still too early. We're still at least a year away from any agent AI assistant being viable and commercialized."
"And what everybody's talking about with the proactive analysis is agentic AI. And that's agents being taught to proactively analyze data."