Finance has long been associated with reporting, reconciliations, and compliance, and while essential, these tasks inarguably consume massive time and resources.
With the advent of artificial intelligence in the Finance room, it promises to flip that model by shifting effort away from transactional work toward strategic enablement.
In a report by Paystand, it was found that 52% of finance leaders cite rising costs and resource demands as their top challenge, while 48% struggle with manual effort and lack of automation. These pressures are precisely where AI can deliver value.
In terms of where AI will disrupt finance most over the coming two years, 44% respondents say it will be on Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), while 33% believes it will be on reporting and consolidation. Nineteen percent notes on audit and compliance, while 4% points to treasury and capital planning.
Paystand says FP&A’s dominance makes sense, as this function lives at the intersection of data and strategy— exactly where AI excels. By surfacing trends, modeling scenarios, and validating assumptions, AI can enhance both the speed and accuracy of planning.
The report says the recurring theme in both the discussion and the deck was that AI is not replacing CFOs, rather, it is augmenting them. The CFO role is evolving from strategist to AI enabler—someone who guides their team in harnessing these new tools to elevate performance.
The promise of AI is tempered by its risks. In terms of their top concerns, finance leaders said:
- 38% Risk of inaccurate or hallucinated data
- 37% Data privacy and cybersecurity.
- 12% Still unsure
- 9% Over-reliance on automation
- 4% Lack of transparency
These concerns, according to Paystand, are valid: bias in decision-making, regulatory non-compliance, and loss of explainability are not yet fully addressed by these technologies.
As AI takes on execution, finance professionals are shifting toward enablement. Evolving roles include CFOs becoming AI enablers, FP&A analysts becoming scenario designers, controllers becoming data governance leads, and treasury managers becoming predictive strategists.
To thrive, Paystand recommends finance professionals to gain new skills: AI & automation literacy, prompt engineering—asking the right questions, data fluency for analysis, analytical storytelling to influence stakeholders, and workflow design with AI agents.
