ACCA attended the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) and delivered a keynote speech

Four Actionable Recommendations to Drive Enterprise Intelligent Financial Transformation and Upgrading

Shanghai, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) attended the Intelligent Finance Forum at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) on July 19 and delivered a keynote speech. Alistair Brisbourne, Global Head of Technology Research at ACCA, called on finance and accounting professionals to leverage artificial intelligence technology to transform financial functions, providing forward-looking insights for corporate strategic AI deployment. Meanwhile, he proposed four actionable recommendations, offering a clear roadmap for enterprises to achieve intelligent financial AI transformation.

Alistair Brisbourne, Global Head of Technology Research at ACCA, attended the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC)

Brisbourne pointed out in his speech that finance and accounting professionals are currently facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Traditional financial reporting models suffer from time lags; data often takes weeks or even months to consolidate into reports, forcing management to make decisions based on historical data rather than real-time insights. With the widespread adoption of AI tools, including cutting-edge technologies like machine learning and generative AI, finance departments can now be liberated from tedious data processing tasks to focus on higher-value strategic analysis, providing management with more real-time decision support.

However, ACCA survey data ^[1] shows that technical feasibility does not guarantee smooth application and implementation without obstacles. 42% of respondents cited data quality issues as the primary barrier to AI implementation. Furthermore, 93% of finance professionals expressed some level of concern regarding unverifiable AI insights. This core concern is not driven by fear of job loss, but by genuine doubts about data integrity, verifiability, and transparency. Additionally, most finance and accounting professionals possess only basic generative AI skills, with a significant majority (72%) rating their own generative AI proficiency as low.

Based on this analysis, ACCA has proposed four core actionable recommendations for CFOs and financial leaders, aimed at helping enterprises achieve intelligent financial transformation:

First, invest in data infrastructure and governance. Financial leaders should prioritize improving data quality and establishing governance systems, implementing tiered investment in data projects based on business value and risk levels. Simultaneously, they should actively advocate for interoperability between data source systems, laying a high-quality data foundation for AI applications.

Second, establish and ensure oversight mechanisms. Before deploying AI, clear business objectives and value assessment metrics must be predefined to ensure every AI investment has explicit, measurable goals. Existing regulatory compliance requirements and governance frameworks should also be integrated into AI investment plans, ensuring AI applications always operate within a traceable framework.

Third, proactively cultivate key capabilities. Finance organizations need to design systematic skill enhancement programs, focusing on developing employees' generative AI application skills, critical thinking, and cautious verification awareness. ACCA advocates for building a culture of continuous learning, rather than relying solely on informal learning or self-study.

Fourth, foster a collaborative ecosystem. Financial leaders should strengthen cross-functional collaboration between finance, IT, and data science departments, breaking down silos to drive the transition of finance professionals toward proactive strategic analysts, thereby unlocking AI-driven business value.

This Intelligent Finance Forum was guided by the Office of the Organizing Committee of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and co-hosted by Shanghai National Accounting Institute and Huifu Limited. ACCA has participated deeply in this important industry conference as a supporting unit for the fourth consecutive year. The forum in-depth explored the opportunities and challenges brought by AI technology to global business and the finance/accounting industry, dissected the transformation difficulties of AI in scenarios such as financial accounting, audit assurance, taxation, and financial management, and outputted referenceable best practice paths.