Shafraz Rashad

You went from Big Four auditing to running finance across more than 45 countries at Etihad. What changed about how you saw the role of finance?

Audit is very much about looking backwards - are the historical numbers accurate, are there errors, are the controls working properly? When I moved into industry, the focus shifted. It became much more about how those numbers can actually add value to the business. You’re looking forward, thinking about growth, business performance, and how finance can help drive better decisions. At the same time, I think my audit background helped me stay grounded in governance and controls. That stayed with me, but the mindset became much more commercial and forward-looking.

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Your automation work saved more than 40,000 hours a year. What’s one story that still stands out to you?

Honestly, what stands out more than the number of hours saved is how people’s mindset changed.

At the beginning, there was a lot of hesitation around automation because people were worried about what it could mean for their jobs. But once they started seeing the results, that changed completely. People started coming forward with ideas, to the point where our RPA developers were overwhelmed with demand.

One example I remember was when we had to retrieve more than 1,000 historical invoices for a vendor negotiation, and we only had 24 hours to do it. Manually, that would have been almost impossible.

Because we already had RPA embedded into our systems, we were able to run the process in the background and have the full set ready within three to four hours.

Those are the kinds of wins that don’t always sound exciting, because they’re mundane tasks. But when you multiply those small wins across a business, that’s where automation creates real value.

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Why do you think there’s still so much fear around automation if it can save people so much time?

I think the fear is understandable because people can immediately see how automation could reduce the amount of manual work required.

Take accounts payable as an example. If two people are processing 200 invoices a day, and automation suddenly allows one person to do that same work in half a day, naturally the other person starts wondering what happens to their role.

But in my experience, freeing up someone’s time doesn’t automatically mean removing their job. It can give them the opportunity to focus on things they couldn’t do before - finding new ideas, improving processes, or working on higher-value tasks.

That’s something I saw quite a lot. Automation changed the work, but it also created room for people to contribute differently.

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You’ve worked across more than 45 jurisdictions. What starts to break at that scale that you don’t necessarily see with one entity?

Standardization becomes absolutely critical. Every country has different tax rules, banking requirements, regulations, and ways of working. If your processes aren’t standardized, one small issue can multiply very quickly across the organization.

I also think centralization plays a big role. When you have a centralized structure, it becomes much easier to standardize processes, introduce the right controls, and maintain good governance across different markets.

So regardless of how spread out the business is geographically, having that consistency in the way you operate makes a huge difference.

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You’re also launching a course teaching accountants how to build AI agents. What was the moment that convinced you this was something worth pursuing?

There was one use case that really changed how I looked at it.

I saw an AI agent take a document of more than 300 pages, extract multiple details from it, compare those details against an accounting policy, write a position paper, and then draft a response - all within about a minute.

That was the moment I thought, this is going to be a game changer. And the more you think about it, the more use cases you start seeing.

What I also find exciting is that accountants no longer have to rely entirely on someone else to build these workflows for them. In the past, you might submit a use case to a technical team and then wait because there was a backlog.

Now, with the right prompts and skills, the accountant can start doing a lot more themselves. Of course, technical specialists will still be important, but this really changes the speed at which finance teams can experiment and build.

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Your course philosophy is that the agent prepares and the human approves. Where do you personally draw the line on autonomy?

If I had to put it in one sentence, I’d say: automate your mechanics ruthlessly, but guard your judgment fiercely.

For me, judgment is the human factor. AI is not infallible, so you still need the right review controls in place, and you still need someone to remain accountable for the final output.

The agent can do a huge amount of the preparation, but the responsibility and judgment shouldn’t disappear. That’s where I draw the line.

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Do you think AI is going to replace jobs in finance?

I think the hard truth is that eventually it will replace some jobs.

The bigger question is how much of an impact it will have, and I think the most difficult part will be the transition period as more tasks move towards automation and AI agents.

There will probably be some job losses during that phase. But at the same time, new roles will also emerge.

If you look back 20 or 30 years, we didn’t have roles like Power BI developers, RPA developers, or many of the technology-focused finance roles we have today.

In the future, we could see finance prompt engineers, finance AI architects, or even finance managers who are managing both people and AI agents.

So I think the bigger risk is not keeping up. The person who learns how to use AI will have an advantage because they’ll find new ways of working and new ways to add value.

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What message would you leave finance professionals with today?

AI is going to impact the profession, but I don’t think people should get overwhelmed by it. Keep reading, keep learning, and keep experimenting with the new tools and ways of working that are coming out.

Things are going to continue changing, but the more you keep up with that change, the more opportunities you’ll find to work differently and add value to the business.

For me, that’s the most important thing.

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