83% of Indians trust AI bots over people to manage finances: Study

With the financial uncertainty created by COVID-19 changing who and what to trust to manage finances, 83 percent of Indian consumers and business leaders now trust Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tools more than humans, said a new study on Wednesday.

A large number of people believe that AI-based tools can help to detect fraud, help reduce spending and make stock market investments.

Interestingly, 73 percent of business leaders trust AI bots more than themselves to manage finances, said the study by Cloud major Oracle and personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi.

The findings come amid the global pandemic damaging people's relationship with money at home and at work.

"The role of finance teams and financial advisors will never be the same - 90 per cent of business leaders believe robots will replace finance professionals, and more than a third (67 per cent) of Indian respondents believe it'll happen by 2025," Guruprasad Gaonkar, Global SaaS Go-to-Market Leader, Cloud Business Group, Oracle, said in a statement.

"Many forward-looking companies are already creating tomorrow, today. Many of these use cases are already in adoption with AI powered SaaS ERP (enterprise resource planning), with more radical transformation coming from the possibility of bringing together ERP applications with Blockchain."

The study of more than 9,000 consumers and business leaders across 14 countries including India found that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased financial anxiety, sadness, and fear among people around the world.

The research shows that the pandemic is reshaping the role and focus areas of corporate finance teams and personal financial advisors.

For Indian business leaders, 95 percent are worried about the impact of COVID-19, with slow economic recovery or recession, budget cuts, and bankruptcy as their main concerns.

Amongst Indian consumers, 90 percent are experiencing financial fears, including job loss, losing savings, and never getting out of debt.

Almost every Indian business leader - 96 per cent - believes that AI bots can improve their work by detecting fraud, creating invoices, and conducting cost/benefit analysis.

"I am not surprised with the study as AI and ML are seeing unprecedented adoption, with the pandemic playing catalyst. I foresee finance as a function undergoing transformation," Kannan Sugantharaman, Chief Financial Officer, Omega Healthcare, told IANS.

"Elements like cost, control and compliance can be more efficiently managed by AI based tools today leaving business leaders and CFOs to tend to more strategic roles facilitating growth, investments, enablement and value creation through digital technologies."