The Future Finance Analyst could be a Hybrid Professional

The marriage of finance and technology, or more precisely data science, has been gaining momentum for years now. There is a trend of finance professionals going back for a Master's in Data Science to elevate those skills and in turn their career prospects.

AI via solutions like ChatGPT has placed a spotlight on many professional areas. We experience near-daily hypotheses of how AI will transform each business function, including finance. CFOBrew author, Drew Adamek, explains in his article titled “Chief Financial Data Officer” how technology and finance will become more immersed in the future. At the same time, Drew points out that we are experiencing a gap today between the ability of the same professional becoming proficient across both the field of data science and the function of finance:

The AI future likely means the creation of a hybrid position, a combination of financial analyst and data analyst, within the finance function, according to Manthena.

There are four possible scenarios that could emerge to create this hybrid position:

• Professionals with a former finance background and strong functional skills will dive into data science in larger numbers
• Professionals with a former data science & data analytics background will need to become equally strong in finance 
• A newer generation of professionals will join the workforce already trained to become this hybrid professional. At minimum with an academic background across both areas
• Data science and finance will never truly merge as each respective area is too complex to master across an entire professional economy. 

In other words, with this last option, there will always be a few outliers who defy the odds, but not enough to convert an entire professional class. Specialization in each area will continue. Under this scenario, we will need professionals who can have operational knowledge of both areas to become a bridge between the two sides. This scenario implies this hybrid position will in fact exist in bigger numbers but as a bridge and not as the go-to specialist.

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