SEA finance professionals want gen AI skills but proficiency lags

Nearly 3 in 4 said that they have only basic or no gen AI skills.

Nearly 4 in 10 (39%) of finance professionals from Southeast Asia named generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) as one of top three critical skills they need to have over the next five years.

Data visualisation (34%) and process automation (29%) are other critical skills named by SEA finance professionals as a critical future skill, according to the survey by Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ).

ACCA and CA ANZ polled 1,600 finance professionals globally, of which 8% or about 128 respondents are from the SEA region.

Other critical skills include data storytelling and executive communication (27%), real-time dashboard creation and monitoring (25%) and predictive analytics (24%).

More traditional technical skills ranked far lower by comparison, ACCA and CA ANZ found. These include database management (16%) and programming (11%).

The findings show how finance teams are evolving from retrospective reporting engines into strategic enablers of enterprise-wide insight, said Helen Brand, ACCA chief executive.

“This is a great opportunity, but upskilling is critical. CFOs and finance teams need to lead in the responsible adoption of AI across organisations, ensuring robust training and governance is in place,” Brand said.

Globally, however, the survey found a growing skills gap. Nearly 3 in 4 or 72% of respondents reported only basic or no gen AI skills, whilst 41% are seeking training and upskilling in their own time,

This mirrors what SEA finance professionals identified as their single most pressing need, according to ACCA and CA ANZ: GenAI ranked as the region’s top future skill, yet it is also where current proficiency and formal training lag furthest behind, the organisations said.