Over the last twenty years, the role of the Chief Financial Officer has changed dramatically.
There was a time when success in finance meant producing accurate accounts, closing the books on time and keeping the auditors happy.
Today, the expectations are very different.
The modern CFO is expected to improve cash flow, strengthen supplier relationships, reduce risk, embrace AI, navigate increasing regulation, drive digital transformation, and turn growing volumes of data into the insight the board needs to act.
In many organisations, the Office of the CFO has become the engine room of business transformation. That’s why I believe the next few years will represent one of the biggest shifts the finance profession has experienced. The traditional finance function relied on people processing transactions. Today’s finance function is increasingly expected to process intelligence.
Instead of asking “How quickly can we process invoices?”, finance leaders are now asking:
- How do we automate routine work?
- How do we gain real-time visibility?
- How do we improve working capital?
- How do we reduce fraud?
- How do we support business growth?
- How do we remain compliant across multiple jurisdictions?
These aren’t accounting questions. They’re business transformation questions.
The modern CFO also carries more risk than ever
The Office of the CFO now sits at the centre of some of the organisation’s biggest risks:
- Cyber security
- Payment fraud
- Supplier resilience
- Regulatory compliance
- Tax reporting
- Data governance
Every invoice represents a financial commitment. Every supplier relationship represents commercial trust. Every payment represents organisational risk. AI can reduce risk. It cannot own accountability. That’s why I believe one principle will become increasingly important.
Human in the Loop isn’t about slowing down
Sometimes Human in the Loop is misunderstood as meaning more manual work. I see it differently: AI should handle the routine, people should handle the judgement.
Regulation is changing the CFO agenda
Alongside AI, another major force is reshaping finance.
Governments across the world are introducing mandatory electronic invoicing, Continuous Transaction Controls (CTCs), Making Tax Digital and initiatives such as VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA).
The UK is moving in the same direction. The Government has confirmed it will introduce a mandatory B2B e-invoicing framework, using the Peppol network, from April 2029.
For CFOs, this isn’t simply another compliance exercise. It represents a fundamental change in how financial transactions are exchanged. It could also be the final push to unlock the business case for true automation: cutting costly manual processes to become more efficient, save money, increase margins, and improve supplier relationships and cash flow.
Technology is no longer about buying one big ERP
For many years, organisations expected their ERP system to do everything.
Today, the technology landscape looks very different. ERP remains the financial system of record. Alongside it sit specialist best-of-breed platforms for:
- E-invoicing
- AP automation
- Workflow and approvals
- AI
- Analytics
- Treasury
- Supplier management
The Office of the CFO has become an ecosystem rather than a single application. This best-of-breed approach lets organisations innovate faster while keeping the ERP stable and secure.
Why this matters for Open ECX
At Open ECX, we see ourselves as part of the modern Office of the CFO.
Our role isn’t simply to exchange invoices. It’s to provide the trusted digital infrastructure that lets finance modernise with confidence. We connect buyers, suppliers and ERP platforms securely. As an accredited Access Point, we support Peppol and other digital standards to help organisations meet regulatory obligations.
We also use AI within our business to make these services faster and more scalable for our customers. For example, AI is helping us automate supplier onboarding, reduce manual administration, improve customer support and speed up implementations.
That means we can onboard more suppliers, more quickly, while maintaining the high standards our customers expect.
But we haven’t removed people from the process. We’re dealing with valuable financial transactions between important trading partners, so we place speed and scale alongside security and accountability.
Being a trusted partner to our customers means AI frees our team to spend more time doing what they do best.
In summary, the combination of AI, trust and human expertise is the future we’re helping to build at Open ECX: supporting the Office of the CFO with the trusted foundations needed to embrace AI, comply with evolving regulations, and build a finance function that’s not just more efficient, but more resilient, connected and strategically valuable.
