By Dhosjan Greenaway-Dalini

Welcome to the December edition of Finance Tech AI. This newsletter is dedicated to exploring the evolving intersection of finance and technology, with a special focus on how Artificial Intelligence is shaping the future. Whether you’re a founder, finance professional, SME leader, or someone curious about how these changes are impacting businesses, this newsletter will provide practical insights and takeaways to help you navigate the rapidly changing landscape.

In today’s newsletter:

• The Cost of Convenience: Is Our Strategic Edge at Risk?

• In case You Missed It: The "Upskill with Bia Innovate" App

• The Dhosjan Show Podcast

• On the Horizon

The Cost of Convenience: Is Our Strategic Edge at Risk?

We’ve had multiple variations of this conversation recently: 'Is AI making us dumber?' Or, perhaps more accurately, ‘Is this new convenience costing us our brainpower?’

It’s widely accepted that AI brings incredible velocity to our workflows and accelerates our ability to tap into vast amounts of data points across sectors and use cases. We believe the biggest danger isn't low-quality work, it's the risk that we are losing the very strategic edge that makes our businesses unique. If we let it.

At Bia Innovate, we’ve embedded AI across our business functions, from using it to support data analysis and scenario planning to generating meeting summaries to brainstorming for tech product development. We also support others to do the same. We view AI as a smart assistant, there to help us expedite and experiment at pace. However, we keep our "thinking caps" on, constantly asking if the output makes sense given our many years of finance and commercial experience and unique business context.

This is especially pertinent as it relates to Generative AI. Using AI as a copilot is a game-changer for velocity, but we are seeing a growing tendency to "offload" the thinking entirely. We see individuals deferring to these tools for tasks that actually require their unique professional judgment:

• Financial Narratives: Letting AI draft a commentary on your monthly performance without checking if the "insights" align with the actual operational hurdles your team faced that month.

• Strategic Planning: Asking a bot to "create a 30-day marketing plan" without feeding it your specific brand voice, customer pain points, or long-term vision.

• Client Communication: Sending a complex project update or a sensitive response that sounds perfectly polished but lacks the empathy and nuance only you can provide.

Don’t get me wrong; AI is an absolute life-saver.  Everyday examples include summarising thousands of lines of financial transactions in seconds to pull out anomalies or suggest follow-up actions based on complex meeting histories. These are tools for velocity, the speed at which we process data. And there are, of course, many more complex AI use cases, from biotech to health and safety and beyond. It is important to use vetted tools that work well for your specific business workflows.  As we all know, our data isn’t perfect. So, inevitably we regularly have situations of garbage-in, garbage-out.  There is a line between using a tool for speed and falling into the trap of wholly deferring our judgment for the sake of convenience.

AI-Generated ‘Workslop’ 🤖🌫️

While many employees are using AI to augment their capabilities, or to take good work to higher levels, there is a growing trend to prompt, get an output, and hit send without a second thought. This creates a dangerous accountability gap. If the work is flawed, AI isn't responsible, you are. 

I found a recent post by Lily Zheng very insightful, as she discussed the impact of low-quality AI output on the workplace, highlighting a telling Harvard Business Review report titled “AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity”.  ‘Workslop’ is defined as “AI generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” The report warns that many employees are using AI to create low-effort, passable-looking work that lacks the substance to move a task forward. This ‘workslop’ doesn't save time; it merely transfers the effort to the person receiving it, who must now decode, check, and redo the task.

Beyond lost time, there is a trust element. Co-workers producing low-effort AI content are often perceived as less competent, less intelligent, and less trustworthy.  This report raises some excellent points.

The Question of Accountability⚖️👤

Experimentation is vital. But if the work output isn't good, and it is shared, whose fault is it? When we stop checking AI outputs, we give up accountability for the very things that make our businesses unique.

As our founder Dhosjan mentioned in my recent Imperial College London interview, authenticity and human connection are what define successful leadership. AI can mimic a tone and output, but it cannot replicate your unique business context or 20+ years of nuanced senior finance leadership. AI can generate a report at record speed, but it cannot take responsibility for a missed financial trend or a misunderstood client need.

Convenience vs. Critical Thinking⚡🧠

Convenience is an enabler, but it shouldn't replace rigour. If we use AI to avoid the "hard work" of critical thinking, we lose the foresight needed to lead. At Bia Innovate, our philosophy remains consistent: AI should uplift the human heart of your organisation, not replace it.

We predict that being "lazy" with AI, will be a key factor driving slow adoption in businesses. When teams see ‘workslop’ instead of value, trust erodes, and AI initiatives stall, as do potential opportunities AI projects could bring.  And, given that all roads lead to money, poor AI outputs will inevitably trickle down to your customers, impacting revenue, creating an even bigger strategic headache.  

It’s not just that the work might be "average" or "below-par." The real danger is that we are losing our strategic edge, that unique ability to interrogate data, apply critical thinking, and make nuanced decisions.  AI tools will continue to accelerate the speed of decision and execution, but let’s not completely forget how to think for ourselves.  Don't let convenience dull your strategic edge as we head into 2026.

👉🏾Ready to strategically deploy AI in your finance operations? Reach out to us at Bia Innovate to learn how we can support you in your business growth journey!

Get in Touch

In Case You Missed It

🚀 Coming Soon! The "Upskill with Bia Innovate" App!

We're bridging the resource gap for early-stage founders. Our new AI-powered app helps you master business fundamentals on your own terms. We move you from guessing to execution, building the solid foundation you need today so you can scale with dedicated experts tomorrow.

We are currently onboarding our first users. Join the Waitlist!

The Dhosjan Show Podcast

Don’t forget to catch-up on The Dhosjan Show!

With 20+ episodes so far, we dive into Finance, Technology, and AI with an emphasis on the human at the heart of innovation. Whether you need business basics, founder stories, or practical tips, we’ve got you covered.

  👉🏾 Don’t miss an episode. 🎧📺

Listen and watch here

On the Horizon

Some exciting speaking engagements are coming up!

• FAB Festival: 11 - 12 March 2026 - Birmingham  (In-person conference)

  We're excited to be back at FAB and will be talking about Automation & AI: The CFO’s Efficiency Revolution!  The Finance, Accounting, and Bookkeeping Show’s mission is to give attendees the insights, tools, and connections to grow faster, work smarter, and stay ahead of change.

Book your tickets here.🤝 If you’re attending, send me a message and let’s catch up in person.

• Book Dhosjan for Speaking Engagements in 2026: Workshops & Keynotes

  Are you looking for a speaker or workshop facilitator who can bridge the gap between complex technology and practical business growth? Some of our favourite topics include: The Modern CFO & Evolution of Finance Operations, The CFO Techstack, AI with Intent: Real-world use cases for Business and Finance, The Startup Growth Journey, Women in Finance and Women in Tech.

  If you’re planning an event or team training, send us a message to discuss how we can work together to inspire and upskill your audience. 📩

• 2026 Strategy Audits: Moving from Vision to Execution

  Is your finance function acting as a back-office support unit or a business-critical growth driver? Many teams have a strategy, but many lack the capacity to operationalise it.

  At Bia Innovate, we don’t just hand over a plan and walk away. We work with you to build the roadmap and then help you walk it, ensuring your finance operations, tech stack, and AI initiatives actually deliver commercial results. I am now booking Q1 discovery calls for hands-on Fractional CFO advisory and execution support.

  📩 Send us a message to lock in your spot and let's turn your 2026 strategy into reality.

In Summary

With AI technology accelerating at such an incredible pace, let’s consciously grab hold of the advantages ahead in the areas where it benefits us.

As we kick start 2026, let’s resolve to use AI to sharpen our minds and advance our commercial goals, not just shorten our to-do lists. The future belongs to those who use technology to enhance their judgment, not replace it.

• Audit Your AI Outputs: Are you sending "workslop" or value?

• Reclaim Accountability: Who owns the output and decision?

• Operationalise Your Growth: Move beyond shortcuts and into intentional execution.

👉🏾 Next Step: Ready for hands-on strategic guidance and execution support? Reach out to us at Bia Innovate to learn how we can support you in your 2026 growth journey!

Who We Are

Bia Innovate is a Fractional CFO and Startup Consultancy. We provide hands-on support to founders, finance and business leaders to turn strategy into action, finance into growth levers, systems into scalability, and AI integration into impact.

👉🏾 If you’re curious, stuck, or ready to explore your growth strategy with us, get in touch.

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