Now that the dust has settled on the 2025 Executive Finance Summit, we can reflect on the event and what we learned from the experience. The summit brought together industry peers for a high-impact day of discussion, debate, and discovery. As the industry grapples with accelerating change – from technological disruption to economic uncertainty – this year’s summit proved a timely reminder of the value of community, connection, and shared insight.

The event delivered on its promise to foster meaningful engagement. Finance leaders from across industries had the opportunity to connect with peers, exchange experiences, and challenge conventional thinking. Each presentation sparked robust debate on how the evolving role of finance is driving business value. And we are very grateful for everyone who made the time to attend and contributed so positively to the discussions.

Introducing the Apliqo Virtual Financial Analyst

One of the most resonant themes that came up was the need for finance teams to shift their energy from manual data manipulation to the more strategic activities of insight generation and decision support. Here at Apliqo, we’ve been hard at work building something really exciting and we were very proud to present it for the first time at the summit.

Our CEO Daniele Tedesco unveiled this exciting new direction: a virtual financial analyst powered by AI, currently in alpha development. This embedded virtual analyst is designed to support and accelerate a broad range of performance management activities. It lives directly within the Apliqo interface as a conversational assistant and it enables users to analyse, interrogate, and interpret financial data in real time. The tool responds to natural language questions and returns insights that go beyond static reporting. What sets it apart is its agentic functionality – rather than serving merely as a passive chatbot, it can actively initiate queries, assess data in context, and propose insights based on the patterns it detects.

The live demonstration demonstrated how this assistant could be applied to a typical month-end variance workflow. Instead of requiring analysts to spend hours manually extracting, transforming, and mapping data before they can even begin their analysis, the virtual analyst supports and streamlines this process from end to end. It can perform materiality testing, suggest draft commentary, and surface early root-cause indicators – freeing analysts to focus on higher-value tasks like storytelling and strategic business partnering.

Emerging benefits of AI-enhanced analysis

Even in its alpha state, the virtual financial analyst is already showing signs of significant impact. Finance teams who adopt this kind of tool can expect to save measurable time during each financial close cycle, with less manual intervention needed at the front end of the reporting process. This time savings translates directly into analyst capacity that can be redeployed to more strategic work, helping teams do more without increasing headcount.

Accuracy is also improved, as the tool helps reduce the kinds of manual errors that inevitably creep in when data is handled repeatedly. In financial environments where precision is paramount, even a small uplift in data integrity can drive significant downstream value. The ability to generate insights more quickly also shortens the time between data review and decision-making – enabling businesses to move from insight to action in a matter of days, rather than weeks.

Beyond the quantifiable advantages, the qualitative benefits are just as compelling. By automating routine analysis and commentary, the tool fosters greater consistency in narrative tone and messaging across reports. It helps teams uncover deeper, more reliable root-cause insights by surfacing trends and correlations that may not be immediately visible to the human eye. Its 24/7 availability ensures that insights are not bound to working hours or reliant on specific individuals – reducing key person risk and building resilience into the function. Crucially, it allows analysts to spend more of their time honing strategic skills rather than being bogged down in transactional reporting, creating a more motivated, future-ready finance team.

A philosophy of augmentation, not replacement 

A key message from the summit was that AI in finance should be viewed as a collaborative partner, not a replacement for human expertise. The virtual analyst doesn’t make decisions – it supports them. It doesn't override judgement – it strengthens it. By automating the repetitive aspects of analysis, the tool gives human analysts the space and clarity to think more strategically and communicate more effectively.

As with any AI implementation, care must be taken to start small, safeguard against bias, and ensure that the technology is grounded in a robust financial planning and analytics platform. Apliqo’s integrated financial model provides this foundation, bringing together data, reporting, and planning into a unified framework that allows AI to operate effectively and responsibly.

What comes next 

While the virtual financial analyst remains in alpha, the pace of improvement is striking. The quality of automated analysis continues to evolve, with future iterations expected to deepen contextual understanding, broaden integration capabilities, and enhance the assistant’s ability to learn from previous interactions.

For Apliqo customers, this emerging technology is part of a broader journey toward a more agile and insight-led finance function. It offers a glimpse of a future where teams spend less time wrangling data and more time creating value – where decisions are made faster, with greater confidence, and where finance is positioned as a true strategic partner to the business.

If you’re curious to learn more about how Apliqo’s virtual financial analyst could support your organisation’s planning and analysis goals, we’d be happy to arrange a conversation. Whether it’s a short call, a live demonstration, or a tailored workshop with your team, we’re here to help you explore the future of finance practically, thoughtfully, and collaboratively. Get in touch today – we’d love to hear from you!