Lucanet Research: the AI Shift is Founded on Data Maturity

As conversations about AI readiness and financial AI continue to grow, Lucanet and Ascend2 conducted research around operational success and the relationship with data maturity. 

It found that AI readiness begins with the elimination of manual workarounds and fragmented infrastructure, rather than the immediate implementation of AI. 

It says that global finance technology budgets are expanding in the next two years, with CFOs dividing by data integrity, process automation and governance in order to establish system readiness for high-ROI AI use cases. 

Speaking to Finance Chief exclusively, Elias Apel, CEO of Lucanet says: “Our research with Ascend2 shows fewer than half (47%) of finance leaders fully trust the data behind their biggest decisions. 

“That's the real barrier to AI adoption, not the technology itself. Disconnected systems have to go first. Markets are responding differently, for example: the UK is focused on data accuracy and integrity (49%), Germany on auditability and internal controls (42%), while Spain (49%) is racing toward automation. 

“The pattern holds everywhere though: organisations with a single source of truth are more than twice as likely to trust AI-generated insights for critical decisions.”

Optimising legacy systems  

Optimisation is favoured by firms as a more efficient and often cost-effective solution to achieve KPIs. 

According to the data from Lucanet, 61% of mid-market and enterprise organisations suffered direct financial losses due to unoptimised finance infrastructure. 

Of the 61%, 44% had losses over €500,000 (US$559,142) in the last year. Damages surpassed over €1m (US$1.12m) for 20% of those affected. 

The report highlights that before organisations can utilise predictive modelling or automated decisioning, finance departments are facing potential operational hurdles through the use of inefficient systems and slow, fragmented legacy systems. 

According to the research, 36% of finance teams rely heavily on manual spreadsheets, despite 78% using an ERP platform. 

Trust in the data 

Just under half (47%) of respondents fully trust the data used for critical strategic business decisions.  

While trust in AI-generated recommendations sits comfortably at 95%, the gap in adoption and reality. 

Over half (60%) of respondents are more likely to strongly trust AI-driven insights if they have a single, unified source of data, compared to those with fragmented systems (28%). 

The fastest and most tangible ROI was reported by 36% of finance leaders in automated narrative reporting. 

Lucanet says the enterprise value is highest where structure meets automation. A third of respondents (33%) say ROI was fastest in cash flow prediction & forecasting, and another 33% instead note it was fastest in anomaly detection and risk mitigation. 

Breakdown of priorities by region  

Operations dictate the rate and method in which finance departments modernise. Lucanet notes that 81% of finance leaders surveyed expect integration and technology budgets to expand in the next two years. 

However, as investment targets change per region, so do operational pinch points. 

Singapore leads the way with global investment plans, as 42% of respondents planning significant budget expansions.

Germany was shown to be the highest ranked region (42%), for focussing its investments on auditability and internal controls. 

The Netherlands (40%) and the UK (49%) prioritise accuracy and integrity of data over rapid speed. Lucanet’s research reveals that the Netherlands display greater caution around vendor readiness, while the UK faces greater organisational resistance for AI adoption. 

Singapore and Spain place the most stress on automation, ranking 53% and 49% respectively. 

France represents wariness here as only 28% of leaders from the region display caution towards AI-generated insights. 

Lucanet partners:
KPMG: The consultancy giant paired with Lucanet to provide a high-powered IT performance system to clients. They also partnered for The KPMG Lucanet Centre of Excellence, designed to provide a specialist centre for technical knowledge. 

CFGI: Another consulting company, Lucanet provides solutions for all levels of consultancy at CFGI, including reporting, ESG, cash management and more. 

PwC: One of the big four, PwC globally consults and implements Lucanet's CFO solution platform, which spans financial planning, consolidation, tax, ESG data and compliance.