The Hackett Group® Establishes AI World Class Finance Benchmarks
MWN-AI** Summary
The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) has rolled out its new AI World Class Finance benchmarks, revealing how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming finance operations. This research highlights a pronounced performance gap between organizations that implement process-led AI transformation versus those that merely automate existing processes. The report showcases impressive metrics indicating that, through AI, companies can boost productivity by 56%-64%, decrease cash conversion days delinquent by 85%, and enhance customer engagement by allowing finance teams to spend 83% more time with clients.
A notable focus area is the order-to-cash (O2C) process, where AI has demonstrated the capacity to cut costs by 52%-59% and reduce staffing needs per $1 billion in revenue by 56%-64%. By redesigning the entire O2C process to utilize AI, organizations can create compounded value, as improvements in one area accelerate efficiencies in others, such as credit management, billing, and collections.
The benchmarks further indicate a shift from mere technology deployment to improving operating performance, emphasizing the importance of efficiency as a competitive measure. As SG&A costs outpace revenue growth, finance leaders face pressure to leverage AI for sustained business value.
Jason Logman, the principal finance transformation leader at Hackett, emphasized that enhancing decision-making at the outset of the process leads to more significant benefits downstream, affecting billing, cash flow, and customer relations. The findings reveal that companies taking a comprehensive approach to AI-enabled transformation can seize the most value, underlining the importance of process reimagining over simple automation. The insights from the study are drawn from extensive benchmarking data, positioning them as critical guidance for businesses aiming for high-performance finance operations.
MWN-AI** Analysis
The Hackett Group's new AI World Class Finance benchmarks provide critical insights into how AI is revolutionizing finance performance. With productivity gains between 56%-64% and a significant reduction in delinquency days by 85%, the data underscores the growing divide between organizations leveraging AI for process-led transformations and those merely automating tasks. Investors and financial analysts should closely monitor firms that adopt this comprehensive AI-driven approach, as they are likely to achieve superior operational efficiencies and customer engagement.
The benchmarks reveal that the entire order-to-cash (O2C) process benefits from AI integration. By redesigning workflows rather than making isolated automation adjustments, organizations can expect substantial reductions in process costs by 52%-59% and a decrease in staffing requirements by up to 64% per $1 billion in revenue. This enhanced efficiency not only optimizes operational capacity but also allows finance teams to shift focus to higher-value activities, aligning with long-term strategic goals.
As SG&A costs outpace revenue growth, organizations must prioritize efficiency and working capital management. Companies that treat AI as a transformative capability rather than just a software deployment stand to gain competitive advantages. The Hackett Group’s research emphasizes that the next phase of enterprise AI adoption will center on operational performance instead of mere technology deployment.
Investors should look for companies that embrace these trends and are committed to redesigning processes around AI. Firms capturing this opportunity are positioned to improve business performance significantly, thereby enhancing shareholder value. Monitoring the progress of organizations aligning with these benchmarks can yield insights into their competitive landscape and potential investment opportunities. In today’s dynamic market, the ability to harness AI effectively is not just an advantage; it’s becoming an essential component of financial resilience.
**MWN-AI Summary and Analysis is based on asking OpenAI to summarize and analyze this news release.
New research quantifies gains in productivity (56%-64%), cash conversion (85% fewer days delinquent) and customer engagement (83% more time with customers)
The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT), an ROI-led AI transformation firm, today announced AI World Class Finance benchmarks – new research that quantifies how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping finance performance and reveals a growing gap between organizations pursuing process-led transformation enabled by AI and those that simply automate existing processes.
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Order-to-cash provides one of the clearest examples of how AI creates enterprise value because improvements in productivity, working capital and customer experience reinforce one another across the order-to-cash process. While many organizations focus on automating individual tasks, AI World Class reveals a larger opportunity: redesigning the entire end-to-end, order-to-cash process around AI. Across credit, order capture, billing, dispute management, cash application and collections, improvements reinforce one another. Better decisions upstream reduce work downstream, creating value throughout the process. The results are significant. AI World Class modeling shows order-to-cash process costs can fall by 52% to 59%, while staffing requirements per $1 billion in revenue decline by 56% to 64%. These gains are not driven by a single automation, but by reimagining how work flows across the entire order-to-cash process.
These new benchmarks build on The Hackett Group’s AI World Class research introduced in May, which identified performance advantages of up to 75% for organizations pursuing process-led AI transformation. The new finance benchmarks show how those advantages will emerge across critical finance and finance-adjacent processes and where organizations can create measurable improvements in productivity, working capital , operating leverage and business performance now.
The research points to the next phase of enterprise AI adoption being defined less by technology deployment and more by operating performance, marking a shift in how organizations compete. As selling, general and administrative (SG&A) costs continue to outpace revenue growth, efficiency is becoming a more visible measure of management effectiveness – putting pressure on finance leaders to determine where AI can create sustainable business value.
“AI isn’t creating a technology gap. It’s creating a performance gap,” said Kyle McNabb, principal and program leader for AI Applied Intelligence , The Hackett Group ® . “Organizations that treat AI as another software deployment will see only incremental benefits. The leaders are redesigning end-to-end processes around AI, and that’s where the biggest gains in productivity, working capital and operating performance are emerging.”
The new benchmarks span critical end-to-end finance and finance-adjacent processes, including order-to-cash (O2C), account-to-report (R2R), treasury and risk management, and financial planning and analysis (FP&A)
Together, these processes shape cash flow, working capital, financial visibility and business performance. AI World Class Finance benchmarks quantify where process-led AI transformation can create the greatest value and establish future-state performance standards for organizations pursuing AI-enabled transformation.
Order-to-cash provides one of the clearest examples of how AI creates compounding value. Improvements made upstream reduce effort, exceptions and delays throughout the revenue cycle, creating measurable gains in productivity, working capital, customer experience, and cost performance.
The results are significant. AI World Class modeling shows order-to-cash process costs can decline by 52% to 59%, while staffing requirements can decrease by 56% to 64%, allowing finance teams to redirect capacity to higher-value activities that strengthen business performance.
Automated credit decisions increase by 138%, helping organizations make faster, more consistent risk decisions before orders are processed. Digital order intake rises by 134%, improving order quality and reducing downstream rework. As data quality improves, invoice corrections are reduced by approximately one-half, dispute resolution accelerates by 43%, and cash application becomes increasingly autonomous, with 89% more payments automatically matched and applied.
The impact becomes even more visible in collections. AI World Class organizations spend 83% more time engaging customers and significantly less time gathering information, reconciling data and preparing for calls. As collectors focus on higher-value activities, average delinquent days decline by 85%, improving both working capital performance and customer outcomes.
“When organizations improve decisions at the front end of the process, the benefits extend across billing, cash application, collections and dispute resolution,” said Jason Logman, principal and Finance Transformation practice leader at The Hackett Group ® . “That's how AI creates measurable improvements in cost, cash flow and customer outcomes.”
While order-to-cash provides a clear illustration of the opportunity, similar patterns emerge across the broader AI World Class benchmark portfolio. The benchmarks span 16 end-to-end enterprise processes and identify where process reinvention can unlock the greatest gains in cost, productivity, speed, and business performance. The most significant value is created when organizations redesign how work flows across an entire process enabled by AI rather than focusing on isolated automation opportunities.
The AI World Class benchmarks are grounded in more than 30 years of benchmark data, process intelligence and transformation experience drawn from leading global organizations, including 98% of the Dow Jones Global Titans, 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials and 90% of the Fortune 100.
The AI World Class Finance benchmarks are available exclusively through The Hackett Group ® . Download the AI World Class Finance report to learn how process-led AI transformation is creating a growing performance gap in finance and where organizations can capture the greatest value.
About The Hackett Group ®
The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) is an ROI-led, AI enterprise transformation firm that helps clients enable AI world-class performance. Its experts and engineers leverage proprietary AI delivery platforms – Hackett AI XPLR™ , ZBrain™ , XT™, AIXelerator™ and AskHackett™ – to accelerate and enhance the delivery of the company’s solutions and services.
The AI platforms are powered by the company’s domain-specific Hackett Solution Language Model informed by Hackett Process and Performance Intelligence – including Digital World Class ® benchmark metrics, best-practice process flows and service delivery model solution frameworks, which accelerate and enhance the delivery of its services. The Hackett Group’s proprietary insights are based on benchmarking results from leading global organizations, including 98% of Dow Jones Global Titans, 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials and 90% of the Fortune 100. Visit www.thehackettgroup.com
Trademarks
The Hackett Group ® , quadrant logo, and Digital World Class ® are the registered marks of The Hackett Group ® .
Cautionary Statement Regarding “Forward-Looking” Statements
This release contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements including without limitation, words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” or other similar phrases or variations of such words or similar expressions indicating, present or future anticipated or expected occurrences or outcomes are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may impact such forward-looking statements include without limitation, the ability of The Hackett Group ® to effectively market its digital transformation services, our ability to transition our capabilities to support generative artificial intelligence (AI)-related consulting services and solutions and other consulting services, our ability to effectively integrate acquisitions into our operations, our ability to manage joint ventures and successfully cooperate with our joint venture partners, competition from other consulting and technology companies that may have or develop in the future, similar offerings, the commercial viability of The Hackett Group ® and its services as well as other risk detailed in The Hackett Group’s reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Hackett Group ® does not undertake any duty to update this release or any forward-looking statements contained herein.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260715133771/en/
FAQ**
How does The Hackett Group Inc. (HCKT) plan to leverage the reported 52%-59% cost reduction in order-to-cash processes to attract new clients and enhance its market position in AI finance transformation?
What steps is The Hackett Group Inc. (HCKT) taking to address the performance gap identified in organizations that automate versus those redefining processes around AI?
In what ways does The Hackett Group Inc. (HCKT) intend to evaluate and report on the long-term impact of process-led AI transformation on client performance and ROI?
Considering the benchmarks reveal significant gains, how does The Hackett Group Inc. (HCKT) plan to educate potential clients on implementing these AI-driven strategies effectively?
**MWN-AI FAQ is based on asking OpenAI questions about The Hackett Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT).
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