04 / AI Motorbike Roadtrip: Vienna

Vienna!!!! My only “new” discovery of the journey 🇦🇹
Or… AI Motorbike Tour: Day 4 & 5

Yesterday morning, I left Budapest for Vienna.
A short ride, mostly through small roads.
Schengen, so no real feeling of crossing a border.
And yet… I could clearly feel the border between Eastern and Western Europe. Eye-opening.

As soon as I arrived in Vienna, I had the chance to meet Richard Kelsey.
This one was special for me. I have been connected to Smurfit Westrock for most of my life, and Richard is the former CFO of Constantia Flexibles, another packaging champion.

The conversation was exactly why this trip will not be the last. I love hearing each person’s finance experience, their view on AI, and how they see the future of the function.
With Richard, we went through topics like:
🔝 the top AI Agents in Finance right now,
👷‍♂️ how to build AI systems that avoid silly mistakes in basic maths,
🛣️ his journey as CFO,
⏭️ and what he is looking for next after 20 years in such a role at Constantia.

🔊🔊🔊 To my finance network: Richard is looking for his next CFO challenge... after leading Constantia... 18 countries, 8.500 people, 37 factories 😮

Vienna was also the last stop of the week, and with the heat, the next meeting happened early this morning with Ruslan Marakhovskii.
Again, super insightful. Not only about finance, but also about his journey into finance and to Vienna.
What I really liked in Ruslan’s approach was the project-based mindset around optimisation and technology.
Not following the buzz. 🗨️
Following methodology! 🦾

And these conversations confirmed something I keep seeing:
Many finance professionals are not against AI.
They are skeptical because the AI buzz overpromised too much.
And those conversation go back to reality:
use cases, controls, accuracy, methodology, and actual value.

I will continue the road this weekend, reflecting on all these insights, before reaching Munich on Monday 😉

Have a great weekend everyone.
Mine will be in Hallstatt!

Feeling grateful,
Alexis

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Originally posted on LinkedIn:

https://lnkd.in/p/ejBvN_tU