Artificial Intelligence for Cloud EPM
What is artificial intelligence (AI)? Contrary to popular belief, AI is not what you see in movies. AI isn’t aiming to take over the world – it’s simply technology that allows computers to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. As we delve deeper into the potential of AI for Cloud EPM, it’s crucial to understand the role that AI plays in transforming these solutions into powerful tools for modern enterprises.
AI enhances our ability to analyze vast amounts of data, make informed decisions, and optimize processes with unprecedented accuracy. By integrating AI into Cloud EPM solutions, businesses can unlock new levels of efficiency and innovation, empowering them to stay ahead in a competitive landscape.
There are four key AI for Oracle EPM tools: Predictive Planning, Machine Learning Inputs, Digital Assistant, and Intelligent Performance Management (IPM) Insights. Each of these tools can be leveraged to streamline financial processes, collect foundational data, and forecast for the future. In this blog, we’ll dive into each tool and how an Elire client utilized Predictive Planning to build a comprehensive sales forecast.
AI Tools for Oracle Cloud EPM
Predictive Planning
Interactive and batch Predictive Planning leverages advanced AI algorithms to forecast future outcomes with remarkable precision. By utilizing standard time-series methods, this approach analyzes historical data to identify trends and patterns. It then applies the most suitable method, ensuring the best possible fit to the historical data, which results in highly accurate predictions.
Machine Learning Inputs
Machine Learning inputs take Predictive Planning to the next level by incorporating a client’s own machine learning tools into the forecasting process. While it predicts future outcomes similar to Predictive Planning, it goes a step further by extending traditional methodologies with customized algorithms and models. This tailored approach allows businesses to refine their forecasts and gain deeper insights based on their unique data and objectives.
Digital Assistant
EPM Digital Assistant offers a streamlined way to interact with your applications, allowing users to get answers quickly by simply typing or speaking directly into the system. This intuitive feature minimizes the need for multiple clicks and navigation, making it easier and faster to access the information you need.
IPM Insights
IPM Insights thoroughly analyzes millions of data points to uncover trends, anomalies, and variances that might otherwise go unnoticed. It’s like having a powerful tool that finds the needle in the haystack for you, allowing you to focus on making informed decisions without getting lost in the data.
AI Compliments Work and Promotes Efficiency
AI complements human work by significantly enhancing efficiency across various tasks. By reducing the burden of administrative work, it allows professionals to focus more on analytics and growth. AI excels at identifying trends and variances at a granular level, providing insights that might be missed by manual analysis.
AI for EPM relies on proven and well-documented statistical modeling methods, ensuring reliability and accuracy. This versatility makes AI applicable across any industry, in any time period, and for any account, making it a powerful tool for businesses seeking to optimize their operations.
Client Use Case: Predictive Planning
Elire recently partnered with a privately held national specialty insurance brokerage and risk management advisor to mobilize AI Predictive Planning with Cloud EPM. Offering a comprehensive range of services, this client offers property and casualty services, employee benefits services, private client services, consulting and actuarial services, and financial and wealth services.
Cloud EPM Project Overview
The insurance brokerage company partnered with Elire to implement a scalable and secure tool for consistent reporting and budgeting. Initially, both teams faced challenges developing a planning process that could easily incorporate the company’s acquisitions into the next year’s budget, hoping to ensure seamless system integration and accuracy.
Ultimately, Team Elire addressed these challenges by delivering a fully automated forecasting, annual planning, and reporting solution using Oracle Cloud EPM Planning. This advanced system not only streamlined the budgeting process but also provided enhanced efficiency and reliability in financial management, meeting the project’s objectives and supporting the company’s growth initiatives.
Client Interest in AI
Elire proposed leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance the client’s forecasting process, showcasing the potential benefits of AI-driven solutions. To illustrate the tool’s capabilities, Elire provided a live demonstration using the company’s actual data, effectively highlighting how the AI-powered system could streamline and refine their forecasting efforts.
This hands-on approach not only demonstrated the solution’s functionality but also gave the brokerage firm a clear understanding of how AI could be integrated into their existing processes to improve accuracy and efficiency.
AI Modeling and Key Results
Elire undertook testing using Predictive Planning batch, drawing on over two years of the client’s historical data and covering 20 different types of insurance to construct a robust forecasting model. This model was designed to predict seven months of total revenue, which was then validated against seven months of actual data. The extensive use of historical data ensured that the model was well-calibrated and capable of handling the complexities of various insurance types.
The results were highly promising, with the overall model achieving an 88% accuracy rate. In different areas of the business, the model’s accuracy reached an impressive 96%. These outcomes highlight the effectiveness of the AI-driven approach in generating reliable and precise revenue forecasts, demonstrating the significant potential of artificial intelligence in enhancing financial predictions and decision-making processes.
Building on the successful outcomes of the AI model, it’s important to consider how Human-in-the-loop (HITL) processes further enhance the effectiveness and reliability of these systems. Integrating HITL principles offers additional layers of refinement and oversight on AI Models, applying a collaborative approach where human feedback and interaction are used to fine-tune machine learning models.
In HITL AI modelling, humans are responsible for setting up, calibrating, and testing these systems, while also stepping in to provide final decisions when needed. This iterative process enhances the decision-making accuracy of the models by combining automated efficiency with human insight, ensuring that the AI remains adaptable and precise in complex scenarios.
What’s Next?
Integrating artificial intelligence into Oracle Fusion EPM solutions marks a transformative advancement in financial forecasting and management. The use of tools such as Predictive Planning, Machine Learning Inputs, Digital Assistants, and IPM Insights enables businesses to achieve remarkable accuracy and efficiency.
The insurance brokerage firm successfully implemented these AI-driven solutions with impressive accuracy rates and streamlined operations, showcasing AI’s significant impact on financial processes. Additionally, incorporating HITL principles enhances these models by blending automated precision with essential human oversight.
Elire’s innovative approach to utilizing AI for Cloud EPM not only optimizes financial performance but positions organizations to effectively navigate an evolving landscape and maintain a competitive edge. There’s so much to learn and so many ways to effectively leverage AI for EPM – contact [email protected] to get started.
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