Mike Richards argues that AI and robots won't replace corporate treasurers, even as technology transforms the field. The job stays rooted in treasury expertise, not IT skills, though treasurers need to adapt to new tools.
A lot of people are worried. They're fearing that their roles might become redundant and the machines will take over. But there's also a different view that it's just about a different way of working. Mike, again, from a slightly different perspective, what are you seeing? Well, actually, it's very similar to Jayesh's perspective there. The role of the treasurer is increasingly technological, you know, and you've got to have that acumen and everything else. But the role of the treasurer has always been technical. You know, it's technical, you know, treasury wise, finance. And now it's the interface with technology and using that and as a, as a tool. And, you know, a tool can be a dangerous weapon, as we know and everything else. But, you know, one of the key things is that I'm never asked, you know, I don't get asked by a cfo, picks up the phone and says, mike, I want, you know, a treasurer that is, you know, an IT guru that does this and a programmer as well as a treasurer. They want a treasurer first. And how do they then bring that IT capacity or integrate any IT team? Well, they'll bring in a systems guy. Those are the key things that, you know, it's not someone who says, you know, there must be a strammer, but, you know, a programmer in Python, you know, it's not that. Yeah, an understanding of blockchain. And again, sometimes on the podcast I ask people that, you know, with treasurers, do they find that the, the CFO is pushing the treasurer in front of them? You know, not under the bus, luckily, but a lot of the time is like the leader, if you like to be the filter for a lot of that IT technology coming at them. Oh, we've got this blockchain idea. What do you think? And they're the filter a lot of the time. And I think that's another thing being thrown at treasurers in increasing the technological world. And then you do get also the other one, you know, I was going to mention, actually, because it just came up in the conversation there, one great treasurer I know, Severin Lebanet from Honeywell. She, she got so much and is so much into it. She's just a crazy, mad, wonderful lady. But she, and I've said this to her, she, she now knows how to machine code, so she knows how to move the robots so she can do this. I said, why did you learn this as a treasurer? She went, well, if I'm going to tell these guys how we make it work to then impact on my balance sheet and why they can't spell. You know, I want to learn this. She's actually done this and can hop on a desk and do this. And I think, you know, there may be more technologically savvy treasurers in the future, but I think they use it more as a part of their toolkit rather than their overall toolkits. I think.
