AI+ Finance Directors
Strategic Financial Leadership with AI
Finance AI strategy your audit committee approves.
Your board wants an AI strategy, your auditors are asking about governance, and your finance team is already using tools you haven't approved. The exposure is real: unvetted AI in financial reporting creates audit risk. This book gives Finance Directors the AUDIT Protocol for AI in financial reporting, the SCALE scorecard for vendor evaluation, and a 90-day leadership plan. Written by engineers who build production AI systems — for Finance Directors who know their name goes on the bottom of the report.
- The AUDIT Protocol — five-component governance for AI in financial reporting (audit trail, understandability, data classification, independent review, transparency)
- The SCALE Investment Scorecard with finance-specific criteria for vendor evaluation
- A 90-day finance leadership plan covering personal practice, function audit, governance, and team rollout
- 18 FD-level prompts — board commentary, investor briefings, audit committee papers, financial narratives
- "For Your Finance Leadership Team" templates — function readiness assessment, vendor SCALE workshop, audit committee briefing
Finance Directors, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), Group Finance Directors, VP Finance, and Head of Finance — reporting directly to the CEO or Board, or sitting on the executive committee. They own the financial strategy, the financial close process, the management reporting cycle, and the regulatory compliance of the finance function. They manage a finance team: management accountants, financial analysts, FP&A specialists, treasury, tax, and often internal audit. They make investment decisions — approving (or rejecting) AI business cases from across the organisation. They sign off on accounts. They are accountable to the Board, audit committee, shareholders, and regulators. Typically CIMA, ACCA, ACA, CPA, or equivalent qualified, with 15+ years in finance and at least 3–5 in senior leadership.
Also for:Finance Business Partners who influence strategic decisions and want to lead their area's AI adoption; Heads of FP&A or Financial Reporting transitioning into broader finance leadership roles; CFO-track Controllers or Deputy FDs wanting to understand how AI changes the senior finance role; business leaders (MDs, COOs) who need to understand finance AI implications for their investment decisions.
- Assess the finance function's AI readiness across data infrastructure, process maturity, team capability, and regulatory governance dimensions
- Apply the PRISM Prompting Framework to at least five CFO/FD leadership tasks (board packs, investor briefings, risk reports, financial commentary, and strategic analysis)
- Identify and prioritise AI opportunities across core finance sub-functions using the AI Opportunity Matrix
- Evaluate finance AI technology investments using the AI Investment Scorecard (SCALE) and challenge vendor claims with structured criteria
- Design and implement the AUDIT Protocol — a proportionate AI governance framework for the finance function covering financial data security, regulatory compliance, and audit trail obligations
- Diagnostic
- How AI-Ready Is Your Finance Function?
- Chapter 1
- AI in Finance Leadership Right Now
- Chapter 2
- What Finance Directors Need to Know About AI
- Chapter 3
- The Finance Director's Own AI Mastery
- Chapter 4
- AI Across the Finance Function
- Chapter 5
- Building the Business Case for Finance AI
- Chapter 6
- Leading the Finance Team Through AI Adoption
- Chapter 7
- Financial Data Governance and the AUDIT Protocol
- Chapter 8
- Beyond Chat — AI Agents and Automation in Finance
- Chapter 9
- Your 90-Day Finance AI Leadership Plan
- Back matter
- Skill Summary · Recommended Next Reads · Glossary · Tool Reference
Written by engineers who build production AI systems — for Finance Directors who know their name goes on the bottom of the report.
