Foreword by Professor Dave Ulrich
Access to AI is cheap. Value from AI is a leadership choice.
The CFO and Founder’s Playbook for Smarter Decisions, Stronger Controls and Scalable Growth.
Most finance teams are adopting AI backwards.
They start with the tool, then go looking for a problem it can solve. Six months later there's an expensive dashboard nobody trusts and a control environment full of quiet holes.
The teams getting this right start somewhere else entirely: with the decision. What are we trying to decide better, faster, or with less risk? Which judgments must stay human, and why? What evidence would we need before we'd act on a machine's answer?
Those questions aren't technical. They're leadership questions — and they get skipped, because skipping them is faster and the cost only shows up later, in a reconciliation nobody can explain or a forecast nobody will sign.
This book is about asking them first.
The ACCOUNT framework
Seven decisions that determine whether AI strengthens your finance function or quietly undermines it.
The commercially grounded reason an initiative exists.
What commercial outcome does this AI use case serve, and who owns that outcome?
The human skills to design, operate and critically evaluate AI-assisted finance work.
Does this team have the literacy to catch AI when it is wrong?
The points where human review is mandatory before an output is used.
Where exactly does a human have to say yes before this output is used?
Finance processes genuinely redesigned around AI, not merely accelerated by it.
Has this process been redesigned, or only accelerated?
The quality, provenance and verification status of what feeds the system.
Do we genuinely trust what is feeding this system?
The measurable financial and operational return an initiative generates.
What changed in the numbers because of this, specifically?
The governance and transparency that make AI-assisted finance defensible.
Could we defend this publicly, to a board or a regulator, right now?
Seven components that connect without overlapping — each attached in the book to a specific finance challenge, then sequenced into a ninety-day roadmap.
What readers are saying
AI creates parity; HI differentiates. AI drives cost and capacity; HI builds insights and capability. AI is the golden egg; HI is the goose that delivers eggs for the long term… Ademola gives us the why, the what, and the how.
Professor Dave Ulrich Rensis Likert Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan · Partner, The RBL Group — from the forewordAdemola Odewade cuts through the noise of AI hype with surgical precision. This isn’t a book about technology, it’s a masterclass in leadership, accountability and strategic judgement… a pragmatic, must-read playbook for any CFO, founder or board member who wants to turn AI capability into genuine business value.
Michele Novack Founder, CardinalsBytes.com
What makes this book particularly valuable is its insistence that meaningful AI transformation begins not with technology, but with mindset, capability, accountability and the redesign of how decisions are made.
Zhanna Zhuravleva Chartered FCIPD
Human-Led, AI-Powered Finance is a valuable resource for entrepreneurs and executives who want to ensure AI becomes a strategic business asset rather than simply another technology expense, regardless of business size.
Dr Yvette Rice Executive Small Business Consultant · Founder & CEO, LLVE, LLC
His practical ACCOUNT Framework provides finance professionals and business leaders with a useful approach to translating AI capabilities into measurable organisational value.
Babagbemi J. Adejola FCA, FCCA, FCTI · Finance & Management Professional
In a world racing to embrace AI, Ademola Odewade brings the conversation back to what matters most: human judgement, responsible leadership and better decision-making.
Ayobami Ishola FCCA, MBA · Founder and Strategic Finance Advisor, Digups Consulting
Through the ACCOUNT Framework, the powerful philosophy of Mindset > Skillset > Toolset, real-world illustrations and practical tools, the author provides CFOs, founders, boards and finance professionals with a clear roadmap for harnessing AI without surrendering the human responsibility that makes organisations trustworthy.
Dr Oluyemi Adeosun PhD, MCIPM, SPHRi, GPHR, DTM
About the author
Ademola Isimeme Odewade is a chartered accountant who spent his career inside the controls before he started writing about them.
He trained at PwC in Abuja, where he worked as a Senior Audit Associate and then Senior Auditor across nearly four years, before moving to London as an Assistant Audit Manager at KPMG UK and later Blick Rothenberg. Audit is where he learned the habit that runs through this book: asking what evidence would have to exist before a number can be trusted.
He is Founder and Chief Executive of K-Dems Consulting in London, where he helps professional services firms turn expertise into authority. He also hosts two podcasts — The King Dems Podcast and Diary of a CFO — interviewing the executives, founders and investors making these decisions in practice. Several of those conversations, including with Ron Shevlin of Cornerstone Advisors, are quoted directly in the book.
- ProfessionalAssociate Chartered Accountant (ACA), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, 2017
- EducationMBA, Augment · BSc Economics, Obafemi Awolowo University
- PracticePwC · KPMG UK · Blick Rothenberg
- NowFounder and Chief Executive, K-Dems Consulting
The King Dems Podcast
Ranked in the global top 2% of podcasts. Conversations with executives, founders, futurists and investors.
Diary of a CFO
Ranked in the global top 2.5%, reaching listeners across 120+ countries. Finance leadership, unfiltered.
Three formats. One decision.
Available now on Amazon in Kindle, paperback and hardcover.
Technology evolves. Standards evolve. Regulations evolve. Business models evolve. But integrity remains integrity. Professional judgement remains indispensable. Accountability remains human.
Otunba Adeadebayo Shuaib, PhD, FCA, FCCA, FCTI, CFE, PMP 14th Chairman, ICAN Abuja and District Society — from the epilogue