Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of chief financial officers (CFOs) expect that within the next five years the financial world will no longer be able to operate without big data, while 13 per cent think this is already the case.

This is according to a survey of 100 CFOs by Onguard, which revealed that financial directors are mainly using big data to make well-informed decisions (54 per cent), to aid predictive analysis (41 per cent) and to analyse large, unstructured databases (29 per cent).

Almost one-fifth of CFOs (18 per cent) do not use big data at all, according to the order-to-cash specialist’s 2019 FinTech Barometer.

More than a third of CFOs (38 per cent) expect big data to have a significant impact within the financial sector, particularly on aspects such as job opportunities, with 36 per cent seeing big data as a threat to employment.

Trends such as robotisation and artificial intelligence (AI) are also on the radar of financial directors, with 42 per cent of CFOs expecting AI to have a major impact on employment opportunities and 30 per cent seeing automation as the biggest threat to jobs.

Marieke Saeij, chief executive of Onguard, commented: “I’m not surprised that CFOs expect to be completely dependent on big data within such a short timeframe.

“This development will require finance professionals to develop new skills, such as greater analytical capacity, as a necessity.”

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