FP&A Today $300 and a Suitcase to AI-Powered Finance: Mariya Guttoh
Sep 21, 2025
Mariya Guttoh, Director of FP&A and Treasury at PayJoy, has over 15 years of experience in finance and tech. She shares her inspiring journey from Ukraine to American finance, highlighting her passion for AI in financial automation. Mariya discusses the common misconceptions about AI in finance and emphasizes the importance of proper training for teams. She illustrates how she reduced vendor reporting time significantly and shares key skills needed for the future of FP&A. Plus, she reveals her transformation from introvert to confident speaker.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Two AI Camps In Finance
- Finance professionals split into two camps: excited-but-clueless and cautious-but-clueless.
- Basic AI literacy prevents overhype or missed opportunities and builds realistic expectations.
Explain AI As A Junior Analyst
- Explain AI to finance teams using relatable analogies, not technical jargon.
- Treat models like junior analysts who need training, feedback, and oversight.
AI Fixes 40-Hour Vendor Reporting Pain
- Mariya built an NER-based process to extract and normalize vendor names across 10 countries.
- That cut reporting from ~40 hours monthly to several hours and improved downstream process fixes.
