Treasury Talent: Future Skills in the Age of AI

Mike Richards joined the ACT Annual Conference 2026 in Liverpool for the roundtable session “Treasury Talent: Skills for the Future”, held in May 2026.

This session explored the future skills treasury professionals will need as AI and automation take on more routine and analytical work.

Together, the panel discussed how treasury roles are changing, where human judgement still matters, whether teams may become leaner and more strategic, and what hiring managers should be looking for when building future treasury teams.

Speakers included:

Mike Richards, CEO & Founder at The Treasury Recruitment CompanyAlan Chitty, Group Treasurer at PepcoVictoria Underwood, Treasury Manager from Imperial Brands

The session was facilitated by Louise Woodroffe, Head of Treasury from Hastings Direct, in association with the ACT Future Leaders in Treasury.

Key topics discussed:

00:00 Session Kick-off

00:46 Format and Participation

01:25 Meet the Panel

03:45 AI Adoption Today

04:57 Copilot vs Claude Debate