If the Canary Islands thrive on tourism, generated by regions like southern Gran Canaria, AI is key for financial executives to anticipate business cycles. The celebration of the second edition of the Deloitte Financial Directors Club in the Canary Islands, led by Jorge Gutiérrez, focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application to the finance function, is a clear indicator that Canarian corporates are obliged to integrate technological disruption to ensure their competitiveness.
The meeting, held at the historic Hotel Santa Catalina, brought together financial leaders from the archipelago's leading companies this Thursday in Las Palmas with the aim of "demystifying mantras" and positioning AI as an essential "transformation lever" for organizations.
The overwhelming success of the Financial Directors Club, now in its second year, confirms that the agenda of CFOs in the Canary Islands has definitively shifted from traditional management to a strategy based on data and automation. The digitalization of the finance function is now the new gold standard for corporates in the Canary Islands.
In a market as sensitive to external factors as the Canary Islands (which depends on tourism, island energy, and investment flows), the role of the CFO is especially complex. AI is presented not only as an automation tool, but also as an engine for risk management and predictive forecasting.
The presentation by Luis González Gugel, partner of Deloitte's AI team (a division with more than 200 professionals), underscores the need for financial leaders in the Canary Islands to adopt technology to optimize cash flow and liquidity. For highly seasonal businesses (hotels, services), AI can improve revenue and expense projections, a key factor for planning in the context of high inflation and interest rates.
Mitigating Regulatory and Tax Risks: With the support of experts such as Susana Romero Steensma (Tax Senior Manager) and Ignacio Martín de la Fuente (Council Tax), the use of AI in the analysis of large volumes of data enables greater efficiency and compliance in a complex tax regime such as the Canary Islands REF. The structure of the meeting held in Las Palmas, which combined the technical presentation on AI with the debate moderated by experts in Transactions (José Ramón Zagalaz) and M&A (José Manuel López Ruiz), reveals Deloitte's strategic objective: to link technological transformation with investment and growth (M&A) decisions.
For external investment, the adoption of AI by Canary Islands CFOs is an indicator of corporate maturity. Companies that demonstrate advanced financial management and predictive analytics capabilities are perceived as lower-risk assets with greater potential for integration into the global market.
