Frameworks

Two ways of thinking I use with clients. Each gets one picture and a few sentences — these are the pages I send people after a conversation.

Framework 1

Activate, Extend, Transform

A sequence for adopting AI in finance: switch on what's native, build what's missing over your own data, then redesign the process. Open the interactive diagram →

ActivateSwitch on what your system already includes.
ExtendAdd agents that work with your own data.
TransformRedesign the close and the forecast around them.
Framework 2

Two Layers, One Intelligent Finance Office

The system of record stays. A second layer of agents is being built on top of it. The place where the two meet is where the risk — and the value — lives.

Two-layer architecture: agent layer above, Workday Financials below, joined by a gateway and semantic layerLAYER 2 · THE AGENT LAYERNew. Reasons, asks, drafts, reconciles — using data it borrows from Layer 1.Close agentjournal review · variancesForecast agentdrivers · scenariosControls agentSoD · audit evidenceYour next agentbuilt, not boughtAgent gateway · Semantic layer · Entity resolutionWhere "Customer 1042" in one system has to mean the same thing as "ACME Corp" in the otherreadwrite (guarded)LAYER 1 · THE SYSTEM OF RECORDNot going anywhere. Workday Financials — the ledger, the controls, the audit trail.General ledgerSuppliers & customersWorkday Illuminate agentsReporting & audit trail
Figure 1. The agent layer borrows data through a gateway; the orange band is where vendor slides get vague and projects get expensive.
Layer 1 is not replacedEverything a CFO already trusts stays where it is. Agents do not get their own ledger.
Layer 2 is where the new value sitsAgents that read, draft, and check — and the ones you build yourself, not only the ones Workday ships.
The join is the riskIf the two layers disagree on what a "customer" or a "period" is, the agent is confidently wrong. Budget for this first.