THE FINANCE CHIEF INTERVIEW
Vijay describes working closely with fellow C-suite leaders such as the CEO at an early opportunity and provided him with a“ good ringside view of the business.” Slowly scaling over the course of 25 years has meant learning not only the business but influences outside of it.“ I’ ve witnessed a lot of shifts and changes in the company, both internal and external – the micro, macro, everything – so the leadership style has also evolved,” Vijay explains.“ The technology landscape is completely changing. We have gone through different phases of technology evolution. From my point of view, it has involved repeated learning and unlearning. The way work gets done has been changing quite a bit, requiring us to challenge all processes and digitise legacy ways of working.” Perhaps one of the biggest challenges leaders have faced recently is the introduction to gen AI. A recent report from Spendesk finds that 67 % of finance teams now use at least one AI tool, up from 56 % in 2025 and 31 % in 2024.“ The advent of gen AI has made it much easier for anyone who intends to change their way of working. Interacting with the cloud or ChatGPT has become more of a habit than anything else. Previously, we had to call people, send emails or look through reports – but with all the latest AI tools, it’ s a completely different way of working where you can get answers quickly.” A recent report from Salesforce highlights how many businesses are turning to AI for help with financial admin. It finds that of those using AI, 89 % report a positive ROI.“ We spend more time on insights and decision-making rather than preparing reports as such. The way of working has definitely shifted quite a bit over the last three to four years, the AI transformation has completely changed how we work.”
AI can’ t replace humans in the field With the rise in the popularity of AI, there have of course been concerns about real people and jobs which have been declared at risk of automation. Roles in finance traditionally focus on financial admin, which is time-consuming, laborious and sometimes mind-numbing. It is, however, important to ensure that no human gets left behind, as Vijay explains:“ Investing in people becomes even more important as AI takes on more routine, role-based work. Work for finance professionals is increasingly shifting away from processing information towards interpreting it, challenging it and making better decisions.” Analysis – data literacy – is the key choke point here. Without data literacy, workers cannot be expected to interpret data into key insights.“ Re-skilling becomes very important for all team members” Vijay explains.“ People need strong data literacy and AI fluency, as decision-making becomes much more vital.
48 November 2026