^{CHAPTER 10}
A five-point readiness assessment

^{10. A FIVE-POINT READINESS ASSESSMENT}

Before scaling AI in FP&A, assess your function honestly across five dimensions. Each one can either accelerate your progress or undermine it. There is no point investing in AI capability you cannot yet absorb.

1. Data foundation

_{^{QUESTION TO ASK}}

Can our actuals flow from ERP to our planning tool without manual intervention, and do they reconcile automatically?

_{^{WARNING SIGN}}

Analysts spend more than an hour each cycle fixing or validating data before they can use it. If so, the data foundation needs work before AI tooling goes in.

2. Governance model

_{^{QUESTION TO ASK}}

Do we have documented accountability for AI-generated outputs in finance, including who approves them and how they are challenged?

_{^{WARNING SIGN}}

No one has answered the question “who owns this forecast if it is wrong?” AI outputs without a clear owner are a governance gap, not a capability gain.

3. Roles and skills

_{^{QUESTION TO ASK}}

Does our FP&A team have the analytics fluency and stakeholder management capability to act as decision advisors, not just report producers?

_{^{WARNING SIGN}}

Team members are primarily valued for their ability to produce the pack on time. If speed of production is the primary metric, the role redesign work has not started.

4. Platform fit

_{^{QUESTION TO ASK}}

Does our current FP&A platform provide native AI capability embedded in the planning workflow, with full audit trail and driver logic intact?

_{^{WARNING SIGN}}

AI is described by the vendor as a “copilot” or “add-on” rather than embedded throughout. Point features on top of a disconnected platform do not compound. They create maintenance burden.

^{10. A FIVE-POINT READINESS ASSESSMENT}

5. Change management readiness

_{^{QUESTION TO ASK}}

Do we have an active plan for how FP&A roles, relationships, and processes change as AI is adopted, and does leadership support it?

_{^{WARNING SIGN}}

The AI project is owned entirely by IT or a single analyst. Without active sponsorship from finance leadership and a structured change programme, adoption stalls and teams revert to manual workarounds.

The ambition is a finance function known for three things: Trust, through governed numbers and transparent assumptions. Speed, through shorter signal-to-decision times. Relevance, through decision-centric insights leadership can act on immediately.

AI amplifies all three. But only when it is built into the right foundation.

Key takeaway

Readiness assessment is not a precondition for action. It is a map for sequencing action. Identify your weakest dimension and treat it as the first project, not a blocker.

Action

Score your function against all five dimensions on a simple 1 to 5 scale. Share the results with your team. The gaps you agree on are the starting point for your AI roadmap.