What would a trading business look like if it ran on AI from day one, with no legacy systems and no habits to defend?
In September 2026, we put that question to more than 40 finance people from 11 Acomo companies, at a finance day in a sunny Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. Acomo trades and processes food ingredients around the world, and its finance teams sit at the centre of how each business buys, sells and plans.
Starting with their own work
The morning began with what people across the group have already built. Finance teams showed tools they had made for their own colleagues.
Starting here mattered. It put the room's own experience at the front of the day and showed that AI was already part of how Acomo's finance teams work.
Finance inside an AI-native company
Anita Rajdev, Senior Value Partner and Co-Founder at Valliance, then joined us for a fireside chat. Anita talked about running finance inside a company built around AI from the start, and what that changes for the people doing the work.
Founding NeuCo
In the afternoon, we mixed people from across the 11 companies into five teams and asked them to found NeuCo, an imaginary trading business that runs on AI from day one.
The teams pitched 19 ideas between them, and the room cast 115 votes to decide which ones to take forward. By the end of the day, NeuCo had a pitch and a website.
How Valliance runs AI design days for finance teams
We start with the work people already do, then give them room to design what comes next. The ideas that come out of a day like this belong to the people who will use them, which gives them a real chance of being built.
Which leaves a question for you. If your finance team started again tomorrow with no legacy systems, what would you build first?
FAQs
How do you get finance teams to buy into AI rather than quietly ignore it?
Valliance gets finance teams to buy into AI by starting with the work they already do, showing what colleagues have already built, and then giving people room to design what comes next, so the ideas belong to the people who will use them. At Acomo's finance day in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands, the morning opened with tools finance people across the group had built for their own teams. Only then did more than 40 people from 11 Acomo companies start designing something new. It is the people-first approach Valliance takes to AI adoption.
What does a good AI workshop for a finance team look like?
A Valliance AI workshop for finance teams starts with the tools the team has already built, adds a conversation on running finance inside an AI-native company, then gives mixed teams the afternoon to found an imaginary AI-native business and finish the day with a pitch and a website. At Acomo's finance day, more than 40 people from 11 companies formed five teams, pitched 19 ideas and cast 115 votes. Anita Rajdev, Valliance Senior Value Partner and Co-Founder, led the fireside chat on running finance inside an AI-native company.
Which AI consultancies in the Netherlands work with large enterprises?
Valliance is an AI-native enterprise consultancy with offices in The Hague and London, working alongside large organisations in the Netherlands such as Acomo, an international group that trades and processes food ingredients, to design and build AI around the work their people already do. For Acomo, Valliance ran a finance day in Bergen op Zoom for more than 40 finance people from 11 group companies. The day moved from the tools teams had already built to designing NeuCo, an imaginary AI-native business, with a pitch and a website by the end of the day.
