00:38:21 · Seema Amble, Praveer Melwani
[00:38:21] S1: That's a a good segue into what I wanted to chat about next, which is what do we think changes in the next twelve to eighteen months for the team and the role and the function overall? I don't know if you guys have any points of view on on what might change. Maybe let's start off talking about how your team even is organized. [00:38:41] S0: Yeah. I mean, I I would love to be in a spot where, you know, we're only adding individuals if, like, the complexity of the business is growing faster than the needs to support it. I do think that we're in a spot now where a lot of the regular sort of business rhythm pieces, I think you can start to move in the reverse direction versus needing to add people in order to keep up with it. You know, I think for us, we're gonna continue to fight it because we're, you know, adding new products, we're acquiring teams and businesses, we're, you know, continuing to evolve what what we're doing, and so it's always more... I think in that world, the complexity there is still outpacing, you know, where we're where we're able to truly drive, you know, if it... You know, complete efficiency. But we're definitely, like, we're definitely getting more efficient, you know, period over period. [00:39:28] S1: Do you think that the efficiency... Do you think it'll, like, plateau? Like, you've got the tools to do what you need to do, or do you think that this... More of these processes will just completely get automated end to end?
00:39:28 · Seema Amble, Praveer Melwani, Ivan Makarov
[00:39:28] S1: Do you think that the efficiency... Do you think it'll, like, plateau? Like, you've got the tools to do what you need to do, or do you think that this... More of these processes will just completely get automated end to end? [00:39:39] S0: I would hope that more and more can get completely automated. I think maybe I'd start start with the pieces that are truly deterministic and how can I feed it with enough information so that I can feel that the output there is completely, completely trustworthy? I think getting something to that audit ready output piece for a system that's, like, truly business critical is extremely high. I think it's also gonna be, you know, an interesting sort of conversation with the auditors on what gets them comfortable. But I don't I don't I don't kinda take it out of the picture. I do think we'll get there over time. I think, you know, like I was sharing, I... You know, as long as our business comp... If our business complexity was, like, staying the same, I think we probably wouldn't wouldn't need the same number of people a year from now. But, you know, I I I think we only get there because you're doing a better job of finding these places and rhythms where you can you can build more consistency in in the way [00:40:29] S2: that you're operating. Is Excel under threat?
00:40:29 · Ivan Makarov, Praveer Melwani
[00:40:29] S2: that you're operating. Is Excel under threat? [00:40:32] S0: No. It's like my love language, dude. Like, I I I think in the same way I was describing how I, you know, I still think that case study is so important because, like, you use it as a tool. Right? Like, you use it you use it to build intuition. A lot of the output people are still creating is a model. Like, mean, that model could be, you know, you you could host it somewhere else. It be something else, but, like, I think you want this tool to give you this ability to refine your understanding and play with things with your hands. And it's kinda like the magic that we see with Figma. Right? Like, we can give people the ability to go and, you know, have a... Have an initial stab in the first draft through, you know, prompting and through natural language. But, like, sometimes it's so much easier to go and riff and make changes on your hand. Take a color wheel as an example. You've got, like, a a a screen that you've that you've designed and you're like, hey. I wanna go and change the background. You could sit there and an agent prompt it. Right? Like, go change the background from red to green, or I could take the color wheel and you get all different shades of it and you get the real feel of of of what's going on. Similarly, I think about that with Excel. It's the way I build trust. The way I build understanding. There may be something better in the future, but for me, I think it'd be really, really hard to rip away from me.
00:41:32 · Seema Amble, Praveer Melwani
[00:41:32] S1: I also grew up in Excel, and I still use Excel to, like, organize my thoughts. Like, if I'm trying to run an analysis, I'll... It's... Yeah. It's just even, like, the spatial organization of it. And and I think the the models aren't quite good enough to, like, create a forecast or a model quite yet, but I think that organization is still valuable. I don't know if you feel similarly. [00:41:55] S0: Totally. And I also think, you know, part of the things that I've tried to experiment with now is, like, how can I use, you know, how can I use how can I use one of these models to help me better understand the output that the team is putting together? Like, you give me like a, you know, a 20 tab model, it's gonna be really challenging for me to go and, like, you know, tab tab through it and thumb through everything. But if I can, you know, pass that same context to... Through through through a model to help me understand, you know, what are the things that really are are are the the needle movers or what are the areas that are more sensitive, it's actually given me, like, a better starting spot to go on to go on orchestrate and understand things, which I've actually found really, really helpful and effective.
00:41:55 · Praveer Melwani, Ivan Makarov
[00:41:55] S0: Totally. And I also think, you know, part of the things that I've tried to experiment with now is, like, how can I use, you know, how can I use how can I use one of these models to help me better understand the output that the team is putting together? Like, you give me like a, you know, a 20 tab model, it's gonna be really challenging for me to go and, like, you know, tab tab through it and thumb through everything. But if I can, you know, pass that same context to... Through through through a model to help me understand, you know, what are the things that really are are are the the needle movers or what are the areas that are more sensitive, it's actually given me, like, a better starting spot to go on to go on orchestrate and understand things, which I've actually found really, really helpful and effective. [00:42:32] S2: The world we're living in is also challenging too. I was talking to a university professor the other day, and I was asking him how do they teach AI at the university. So they don't right now. And one of the challenges that they they said, they had a course, and within a semester, they've changed the syllabus several times because new models have dropped. Mhmm. And they just have to completely change how they do it, though, so they just sort of give up. So they're going back to fundamentals again, teaching people analytical thinking and Excel and all of that because I imagine you're in a similar world where if you were relying in AI too heavily, you're gonna have to redo how you do your earnings.
00:42:32 · Ivan Makarov, Praveer Melwani
[00:42:32] S2: The world we're living in is also challenging too. I was talking to a university professor the other day, and I was asking him how do they teach AI at the university. So they don't right now. And one of the challenges that they they said, they had a course, and within a semester, they've changed the syllabus several times because new models have dropped. Mhmm. And they just have to completely change how they do it, though, so they just sort of give up. So they're going back to fundamentals again, teaching people analytical thinking and Excel and all of that because I imagine you're in a similar world where if you were relying in AI too heavily, you're gonna have to redo how you do your earnings. [00:43:06] S0: A lot has changed, but lot hasn't changed. Yeah. And I think maybe that's the spirit of where you're going. I, you know, I I think that the core capabilities of what makes a great finance person are still there. How you actually, you know, leverage the tools at your disposal to make, you know, better decisions is, you know, always gonna be this, like, moving target for you. Like, the unlock that SQL was for me is, you know, now, you know, net... A net net new unlock with, like, AI as as a tool and capability driver for me. So I, you know, I I I think a great finance person has longevity if they continue to adapt.