Artificial intelligence is gradually making its way into companies. Especially in data-driven areas such as Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A), AI can already provide effective support for routine tasks, cost planning, project optimization and analytics. However, demos often only showcase prototypes or isolated use cases — and only rarely a broadly applicable, reliable business AI for Corporate Performance Management (CPM) and BI (Business Intelligence).
This is why many CFOs and FP&A experts are rightfully asking:
Which AI is more than just a prototype – and truly ready for use in FP&A?
With the AI assistant Smartofant, smartpm.solutions follows a clear ambition: production-ready, reliable AI support for FP&A and business departments. Smartofant was specifically designed for planning, forecasting, analysis and performance steering — enabling users to work in natural language without technical barriers and backed by professional data governance.
Why Many AI Approaches in FP&A and CPM Fail
In practice, many AI solutions in the finance domain show typical weaknesses:
- lack of integration into existing planning and steering processes
- results are not sufficiently transparent or reliable
- high entry barriers because technical expertise is required
- only isolated use cases instead of broadly usable standard processes
- limited operational value in daily business
The result: fascination — but no sustainable impact.
Smartofant: An AI Assistant for CFOs, FP&A, and Business Departments
Smartofant is not a generic chatbot and not an isolated AI use case. It is an intelligently integrated AI assistant designed for productive use, actively supporting CFOs, FP&A experts and business departments in their daily work. Smartofant automates recurring tasks, explains variances in a transparent way, and supports planning and forecasting.
Thanks to governance, workflows and a sandbox environment, the solution remains secure, controllable and scalable — and enables significantly faster planning cycles. The focus is not on complex technology, but on practical, language-based assistance that delivers real value.
What Smartofant Can Do: Use Cases Across Analysis, Planning, and Forecasting
Smartofant is seamlessly integrated into the controlling software and launched directly from the familiar user interface. The AI assistant automatically recognizes the user, their role, and the relevant business context. It translates requests into structured planning and analysis workflows – secure, transparent, and rule-based.
Depending on the question, Smartofant supports tasks such as:
- Cost center planning based on historical data, business drivers, and budget targets
- Updating plan values and forecasts, including scenario analysis
- Variance analysis and root-cause identification
- Ad-hoc analyses and project planning
In the background, specialized AI agents interact with the Performance Management system, calculate planning and forecast values, and request approvals. All adjustments are written back to the system only after controlled approval.
This enables Smartofant to support FP&A and business teams in a secure and guided manner – from analysis through execution.
Example Use Case: Updating Plan Values — From Question to Action
AI assistants and AI agents. Intelligently connected with Smartofant.
Smartofant combines assistant and agentic capabilities.
This means that, depending on the request, the assistant decides whether – and which – specialized agents are involved in solving the task. Smartofant does not merely provide recommendations; upon approval, it can also execute actions directly within the system.
Users can choose between workflow-guided processes and free AI execution, depending on how critical or security-relevant the outcome is.
Key benefits:
- Targeted support instead of uncontrolled automation
- Consistent results with a high level of transparency
- Higher quality outcomes with less complexity
- High acceptance among controlling and business departments
- Full control always remains with the user
Production-ready AI in controlling practice instead of isolated use cases
The decisive difference between Smartofant and many AI approaches lies in its level of maturity.
Smartofant is:
- Fully integrated across planning, analysis, and forecasting
- Ready for use by FP&A departments and all business functions – no individually “assembled” solution
- Reliable and explainable
- Scalable across teams, organizations, and functional areas
As a result, Smartofant delivers exactly what CFOs and all finance experts expect today: business AI that works productively in Finance.
What CFOs and FP&A Departments Gain with the Smartofant AI Assistant
For CFOs and FP&A experts, Smartofant means:
- faster and more consistent planning processes
- less dependence on Excel
- better empowered business departments for planning and performance steering
- less manual alignment and coordination effort
- more transparency and steering capability
- better prepared decisions
In short: AI as a productive part of the finance organization — not an experiment.
Conclusion: Smartofant - The New Standard for AI in Performance Management
Smartofant represents a new standard for AI in controlling:
Not to impress, but to support.
Not to isolate, but to integrate.
Not to experiment, but to steer reliably.
CFOs, FP&A and business departments benefit not from individual AI use cases, but from end-to-end integrated, production-ready AI support.
