Meet Geoff Ng on AI, trust, and the next chapter of finance

At a time when most mid-sized finance companies were still relying on spreadsheets, emails, and even floppy disks to coordinate their budgeting cycles, Geoff Ng joined Prophix. That was October 2000. Twenty-five years later, he’s preparing to mark this milestone with a new mandate: leading the company into its AI era as Chief AI and Trust Officer.

His story, and Prophix’s, are closely intertwined. Over the years, Geoff has shaped nearly every stage of the product journey from implementation consultant to Chief Product Officer, to his current role at the helm of AI and trust.  

“Workflow, automation, ease of use those elements are the DNA of Prophix,” he says. “They’ve carried through every stage of the product’s evolution.” 

Building for finance teams, not technologists

In the early 2000s, many finance teams were stuck in the same pattern: complex requirements, but limited resources. Coordinating a budgeting process meant passing spreadsheets around by email, manually tracking submissions, and relying on outdated systems without a single source of truth.

Prophix set out to change that. “Our implementations often took just days, not months,” Geoff recalls. “We designed the product so accountants, not IT, could own the process. That was rare back then, and it set us apart.”

The same philosophy runs through the platform today. Centralized workflows, auditability, and the ability for finance teams to control their own processes remain at the core. “That focus on simplicity and accessibility is what built our foundation,” Geoff says. 

A new mandate: AI and trust

In 2025, Geoff stepped into a newly created role as Chief AI and Trust Officer. The purpose was clear: to lead Prophix’s use of AI in a way that was both innovative and responsible.

“AI isn’t just about technology,” Geoff says. “It’s about security, privacy, and building trust as we use AI more broadly across the company.”

Working with AWS and trusted partners, the Product and Engineering teams built Prophix One Intelligence with responsible AI principles baked into the architecture. Geoff says: “We made a deliberate choice early on to design for transparency and control. Customers should know when they’re interacting with AI, what role it plays, and how their data is being used.” 

From intelligence to agents

That foundation set the stage for Prophix’s latest milestone: the launch of Prophix One Agents, the first autonomous agents built for finance.

Want to learn more about agentic finance? 

Read our Business Performance Management Whitepaper to see how autonomous agents are shaping the future of planning and close.

Unlike assistants that simply answer questions, Agents take action. They validate data, manage submissions, reconcile transactions, and provide immediate feedback on assumptions automating the repetitive tasks that used to take multiple cycles and heavy manual oversight.

“If you’ve ever managed a budgeting cycle with hundreds of participants, you know how daunting it is,” Geoff says. “Agents can now take on tasks like validating data, managing submissions, and giving immediate feedback on things that used to take multiple cycles and a lot of manual oversight.”

The benefits extend into the financial close. “When you’re reconciling thousands of transactions, you can only validate so much manually,” he notes. “Agents bring both speed and accuracy, while still keeping humans in the loop.”

Looking ahead, Geoff believes this will change how finance teams work at a fundamental level. “Agents will become part of the team handling the repetitive work, learning from mistakes, and freeing people to focus on strategy,” he says. “That’s the future of finance. Confidence built on clarity.”

Glassbox, not black boxes

For Geoff, trust in AI comes down to transparency. “It should never be a black box,” he says. “You should be able to trace back and understand how the AI arrived at its output the assumptions, the data, the steps it took.”

That principle is already built into Prophix One Intelligence. Users can follow an agent’s workflow, see the logic behind outputs, and decide whether to accept or adjust them. “Traceability is what turns skepticism into confidence,” Geoff says. Read more about AI risks in finance and accounting.

At Prophix Customer Advisory Board, early adopters echoed that sentiment. “They saw agents as a way to extend the capacity of the office of the CFO during peak cycles,” Geoff recalls. “That kind of feedback tells us we’re on the right track.” 

Leading with responsibility, looking back to look ahead

For Geoff, leading in an AI-first world doesn’t mean abandoning old lessons. “Don’t lose sight of the problem you’re solving,” he says. “Test ideas quickly, engage with customers early, and always keep transparency, choice, and compliance in view.”

That perspective traces back to his very first job as a consultant for not-for-profits. With limited budgets and little technology, he had to get creative. “It taught me to keep things simple and focus on outcomes, not tools,” he recalls.

It’s the same philosophy guiding Prophix’s AI future. “We move fast, but we measure twice,” Geoff adds. “Trust isn’t a feature. It’s a constraint we design around. At the end of the day, it’s about business value. That hasn’t changed, only the tools have.”