FCC Construcción has participated in the CFO 2025 Business Conference: Financial leadership in the age of Artificial Intelligence organised by El Economista. Artificial Intelligence is becoming a key tool in organisations due to the facilities it provides to different departments. For this reason, it is playing a fundamental role for financial directors, as it helps them to analyse possible future scenarios, which generates greater confidence when making decisions within organisations.

FCC Construcción was represented by Maria Carrasco, the company's CFO, who discussed Purposeful innovation in unpredictable scenarios, highlighting the role that technology is playing in the financial function of companies. She pointed out that Artificial Intelligence has become ‘the first technological solution that does not come from companies, but rather from employees who bring it with them from universities, schools, or even from home.’ ‘The finance function today has a responsibility to ensure data reliability.

In times of uncertainty, companies need to prepare for the future and take into account the different situations the company may face and the directions it may take. In this regard, the role of CFOs in times such as the pandemic has been crucial, said María Carrasco, CFO of FCC Construcción, who pointed out that ‘in times of crisis such as the pandemic, we have been given a lot of power to take that strategic position.’

According to the CFO of FCC Construcción, this is because ‘it was the perfect moment, and that forced us to crunch a lot of numbers and give importance to technology, which can help us in these situations.’ Carrasco emphasised that the role of the chief financial officer is invisible ‘when things go well’. However, when things go wrong, they are responsible for the financial statements, annual accounts and audits, among other things. ‘That's why, in times of crisis, they put us at the centre,’ she said.

With regard to the implementation of technology in the financial area, Carrasco pointed out that there must be ‘three blocks when implementing it.’ First, she highlighted data management, which must be reliable. ‘We have to be sure and it must be stable, which is one of the states in which many companies still find themselves.’ The CFO of FCC Construcción highlighted ‘management and analytical accounting, which allows you to get involved in the business and saves you a lot of problems in the management committee.’

In this regard, she indicated that the financial function, at present, ‘has already become the owner of the financial and analytical side of organisations.’ The last block highlighted by Carrasco is predictive artificial intelligence, ‘which, to get to this point, you have to feed it, put in a lot of hypotheses, and until you have all that set up, you can't move on to artificial intelligence.’ She thus highlighted the importance of having AI, but remained cautious, pointing out that ‘it is a tool that can help us, but we have to teach it.’

Since financial directors have become a fundamental part of the digital transition in companies, the sector has undergone major changes and will continue to do so due to the context of global uncertainty. Carraco pointed out that the future of financial directors depends on experts beginning to specialise in both financial accounting and management. "That's what I look for in talent. I encourage those who are very good financially to look at the business, because in order to train in new technological tools, it is essential to have an in-depth knowledge of the business."

Concluding her speech, the CFO of FCC Construcción called for greater automation in the regulation of the sector so that teams can focus on analysing this data.