The discussion, aptly titled The robots are coming – but not for your job, quickly moved beyond the question of whether AI will replace treasury professionals. The bigger question was what happens to the role when machines can increasingly handle the work behind the decisions.
For independent treasury professional Christof Nelischer, the answer comes down to something AI cannot provide: judgement.
Drawing on Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis, Nelischer argued that while “AI is the brain”, it lacks “the heart” – the human element, judgement, ethics, intuition and relationships.
And treasury, he pointed out, is built around uncertainty. “We will always live with uncertainty. We will always live with ambiguity,” he said. Financial markets cannot simply be predicted by increasingly powerful technology, and treasurers still have to stand behind the decisions they make.
That does not mean AI has no place in treasury. Far from it.
Data at the core
At CM.com, Head of Treasury Dave van der Zwan described AI as the latest step in a much longer process of automation. But before getting there, his team focused on fixing the basics across finance – from record-to-report to order-to-cash and procure-to-pay.
The message from the panel was consistent: bad data will not become good data because AI is involved.
Mario Del Natale, Treasury Director, Global Digital Treasury at Johnson Controls, put it bluntly: “If you do not have the data, I don’t think that AI will solve your issue.”
He also warned that AI can make the wrong answer look convincing. “You can get as well a wrong answer faster,” he said, adding that polished AI output can make people more confident in an incorrect decision.
Shifting time management
So where is AI already proving useful? Del Natale pointed to tasks such as screening documents, summarising information and reviewing contracts. Van der Zwan gave a more practical example: using AI to produce three board presentations in parallel, which he could then review and discuss with the CFO.
For Paul Miseré, Senior Director Global Treasury at Medtronic, that shift could change what treasury professionals spend their time doing. Rather than gathering and interpreting data, employees could increasingly focus on business partnering and recommendations.
“Data is king now,” he said. “Cash is king” may have been the old treasury mantra, but the quality of the data underneath today’s decisions is becoming just as important.
And despite all the talk of automation, one thing remains firmly human: accountability.
“You still own your numbers, but you still need to sign up to decisions,” Nelischer said.
Speakers:
Mario Del Natale, Treasury Director, Global Digital Treasury, Johnson Controls
Paul Golden, Freelance journalist/event moderator, Paul Golden Writing Services
Paul Misere, Senior Director Global Treasury, Medtronic
Christof Nelischer, Independent treasury professional
Dave van der Zwan, Head of Treasury, CM.com
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