AI Is Reshaping Your Finance Function: How to Stay Ahead
A blunt look at how generative tech is eating routine finance work, where it still trips today, and how Wonso’s human‑plus‑AI approach lets you double down on your core trade.
Written by
Kari Honkanen
Snapshot
Routine data entry in QuickBooks will disappear within two years.
Compliance tasks that once needed junior accountants will run on AI prompts.
Strategic finance roles will survive, but only for people who can steer the tech.
Wonso already automates 60 percent of month‑end work for UAE clients; human controllers handle the messy 40 percent.
Radical candor: AI does not care about job titles
Fiverr’s CEO said it first: AI is coming for everyone. He is right. Ledger coding, VAT rate checks, bank reconciliations, and even first‑pass tax computations are rule‑based problems. Large language models solve rule‑based problems fast and cheap. Pretending otherwise is career suicide.
Reality check—why pure AI still falls short in 2025
Limitation | Pain today | Trajectory |
|---|---|---|
Clunky tool‑calling | LLM struggles to chain multiple accounting actions inside QBO without human prompt shaping | Better function‑calling APIs due Q3‑2025 |
Hallucination/fabrication | Model invents VAT categories that do not exist if context is thin | Guard‑railed models + live ledger validation rolling out each quarter |
Narrow context window | Long supplier contracts or multi‑entity ledgers get truncated | 1 M‑token context windows already in lab, production by year‑end |
No working long‑term memory | Cannot recall last quarter’s clean‑up decisions without re‑feeding data | Vector stores today, native weight memory forecast 2026 |
Bottom line: AI is sprinting, but still trips. Someone has to catch the fall. That someone is a sharp finance pro who knows when to override the bot.
Why Wonso chose a hybrid model
AI for the grunt work. Our model classifies, posts, and reconciles.
Humans for judgement calls. Senior controllers review exceptions, approve high‑impact journals, and liaise with auditors.
Feedback loop built in. Every human correction feeds back into training so tomorrow the AI makes one less mistake.
This mix keeps error rates below 1 percent while shipping close faster than any pure‑human firm.
What will disappear first
Task | Status today | AI impact by 2026 |
Manual bank reconciliation | 4 hours a week | Fully automated feed matching |
Invoice data entry | Scan and type | OCR + LLM validation in seconds |
VAT return prep | Two days a quarter | Natural‑language query: "file VAT Q2" |
Basic management reports | Export to Excel | Auto‑generated dashboards |
Wonso shortcut
Wonso already reads PDF invoices, assigns VAT codes, and posts them in QuickBooks with 98 percent accuracy. The remaining 2 percent becomes training data, so accuracy only goes up.
What will survive
Scenario planning and cash forecasting that blend market intuition with data
Fundraising narratives backed by numbers and story
Ethics and compliance judgement for grey cases the model cannot solve yet
If you are a finance professional, that is your new job description.
Why UAE founders must act faster than peers elsewhere
VAT checks every quarter. AI lets the FTA run analytics on returns. Errors stand out immediately.
Corporate tax is brand new. Early years will see audits to set precedents. Clean AI‑auditable records are your safest bet.
Investor scrutiny. DIFC funds already ask how you leverage AI. Saying "we plan to explore" is not enough.
Three moves to stay ahead
Automate the grunt work today. Connect Wonso to QuickBooks Online; turn on full auto‑coding.
Upskill the team. Teach analysts prompt engineering and cash scenario modelling. Replace data entry KPIs with insight KPIs.
Keep a human‑in‑the‑loop policy. One senior reviewer signs off AI journals monthly. Quality stays high and training data improves.
Wonso shortcut
Type "show all AI suggestions pending approval". Review and accept or reject in one screen.
The numbers: ROI of AI‑assisted bookkeeping
Headcount | Workload before Wonso | Workload after Wonso | Monthly saving |
1 bookkeeper | 160 hrs | 64 hrs | 60 percent less salary cost |
1 financial controller | 40 hrs close review | 16 hrs | 60 percent less cost, redeploy to analysis |
Within a year the software plus human oversight pays for itself and frees budget for growth hires.
Straight talk from a founder
AI does not eliminate finance; it eliminates routine. Your choice is to let competitors wield that edge or claim it first. At Wonso we combine razor‑sharp controllers with a constantly improving AI layer. That hybrid keeps you compliant today and future‑proof tomorrow. The door to the future is open—walk through or stand aside.
