Finance & Reporting
Budget narrative drafting
Translate budget model assumptions and inputs into plain-language narrative explanations for business leaders. Finance team reviews and adjusts. Removes the blank-page problem at budget pack time.
50–70%
reduction in budget narrative drafting time
Opportunity assessment
Negligible commercial impact. Saves time at the margins but won't move the needle on revenue or profit.
Very easy to implement. Ready-to-use tools exist. Can be up and running in days or weeks with minimal technical resource.
Light data requirements. Uses straightforward inputs — documents, product descriptions, customer records — that are usually accessible with minimal prep.
Very low risk. Fully internal use. A person checks everything before it goes further. Worst case is a minor internal inconvenience.
Very easy to absorb. Runs quietly in the background or gives people a helpful new input. Makes everyday work easier with almost no friction.
Tooling required
Things to consider
Provide structured assumption tables (growth rates, headcount changes, cost drivers) as input — the AI can explain what you've assumed far more clearly than generating assumptions from thin air.
Budget narratives often carry commercial sensitivity. Ensure any AI tool used for drafting meets your data governance requirements, particularly for cloud-based tools where data may leave the organisation.
The finance director still owns the narrative — the AI provides a first draft, but the strategic framing and sign-off remain human responsibilities.
The most valuable use is bridging the gap between spreadsheet logic and business narrative. A finance team that understands the model deeply often struggles to explain it plainly. The AI's strength is in making complexity legible, not in understanding the underlying business.
Experiment starter: At the next budget round, export the assumptions page and key line items for one business unit as a structured table. Use an LLM to draft the narrative section of the budget pack. Ask the FD to rate the draft against their own for clarity and accuracy. If it takes less than 15 minutes to edit to a publishable standard, formalise the process.
Go deeper in the playbook
Section — Opportunity Identification, including the AI Opportunity Assessment ScorecardSection — The Experimentation FrameworkThis is an augmentation opportunity — see the relevant playbook section for how to approach it.More in Finance & Reporting
Period-end commentary drafting
Convert financial data into narrative commentary for management accounts. Finance team reviews and adjusts. Eliminates the blank-page problem at month end.
Invoice exception identification
Flag invoices with missing PO references, duplicate submissions, price variances, or unusual payment terms before they reach approval.
Contract data extraction
Extract key commercial terms from supplier and customer contracts — payment terms, renewal dates, liability caps, exclusivity clauses — into structured records.
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