Finance can’t hide behind IT anymore – and that’s terrifying!

Finance and ops leaders work with data daily – from ERP systems, spreadsheets, and beyond. But here’s the thing: when ‘numbers’ grow out of Excel, we call them ‘data’. In databases. Inside systems. And most business folks never learned database systems in school.

This creates dependency on BI, data, and IT teams to help wrangle information for reporting, analysis and automation.

But the game is changing rapidly.

Modern finance teams need data access for almost everything, such as:

• Traditional reporting and dashboards (that isn’t going away)
• Advanced BI & analytics (with automated computations & business rules)
• Multi-system consolidated & harmonized views across the enterprise (Excel and duct tape are a disaster)
• Ad hoc AI-powered analysis (where quality reasoning and full auditability are key)
• Task automation with AI agents (with new frontiers around accountability)

Data is no longer an off-limits topic to throw over the fence to IT. In 2026, taking interest in data – and specifically best-in-class data modeling – is survival for high-performing finance and ops teams.

The legacy “Complexity Cartel” vendors are coming to pitch their narrow-scoped AI features. Is your team ready? Can you see the traps & opportunities?

What’s your take? Are finance teams in your organization equipped for this shift?