AI technology is accelerating the application in the financial field. Report recommendations establish standardized and operable processes.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is accelerating its application in the financial field. A recently released report believes that establishing standardized and operable AI application processes under a governance, control and supervision framework is the key for companies to stand out.

In recent years, enterprises have continued to pay increasing attention to the effectiveness of financial intelligence implementation, risk management and control, and value transformation. The "2026 KPMG Global Financial Intelligence Research Report" is based on the survey feedback of 1,013 senior financial executives in 20 countries and 13 industries around the world, analyzing the current application status, core pain points and future trends of AI in the financial field.

The report shows that the number of companies actively implementing AI in the financial field has more than doubled in the past two years. Currently, more than three-quarters of the companies surveyed have applied AI in financial planning, reporting and business analysis.

"Financial intelligence is directly related to corporate cost control items, and many companies have already deployed AI in the field of financial management." Shen Yi, managing partner of KPMG China's financial consulting services, said that how to fully unleash its value, based on data governance, taking into account efficiency improvement and compliance risk control, and steadily releasing the long-term value of AI in cost optimization and operational insights is the core of the current financial transformation.

The report notes that the significant advantage of AI in the financial field lies in improving judgment capabilities. In terms of improvement in key financial indicators, companies that have deployed agent-based AI have achieved significant growth, with particularly obvious improvements in forecast accuracy and return on investment.

"Currently, the role of AI in the financial field has undergone a fundamental change. AI is a decision-making engine rather than a cost lever." Li Li, managing partner of KPMG China Financial Industry Research Center, analyzed that the competitive advantage of enterprises no longer depends on whether to apply AI, but on the operating model of applying AI.

The report also pointed out that governance is often considered to hinder the promotion and application of AI, but data shows that this is the opposite. Companies with stronger control mechanisms perform better in applying AI and gain more trust in applying AI at scale.

Research shows that companies that can continuously and efficiently provide AI-related audit evidence (that is, have verification capabilities) can achieve significant results with their AI applications three to six times faster than other companies.

In addition, manual supervision is still indispensable, and 33% of the companies surveyed are enhancing supervision through human-machine collaboration to ensure that AI workflows produce more reliable results.

The report reminds that enterprises must embed governance, control, effectiveness inspection and manual supervision into AI-driven financial processes, and build trust by establishing auditability and explainability. This is not only to meet compliance requirements, but also a prerequisite for large-scale application of AI. (over)