13 November 2024: More than half of CFOs in the US expect a reduction in the number of finance roles in the next two years as AI adoption becomes commonplace.
A new survey by Datarails, the FP&A solution for Excel users, finds that 57% of finance chiefs predict a decline in finance roles by 2026 as a result of AI adoption in the CFO’s Office.
The report, 2024 SMB CFO Sentiments, surveyed 270 CFOs at US companies with annual revenue between $50million to $999 million. The survey tackles CFO attitudes to purchasing software, career ambitions, and AI.
The survey finds that CFOs at finance, banking and insurance companies (59%) are most likely to predict a drop in finance roles due to AI adoption, followed by CFOs at software companies (57%). Only 27% of CFOs believe AI will have no impact on the number of finance roles by 2026.
The finance processes most ripe for AI disruption, according to CFOs, are financial reporting (cited by 26%), analytics (22%), risk assessment (21%), Accounts Receivable and invoice and billing (17%).
CFOs “all-in” as 70% prioritize AI investment
The survey finds that 70% of CFOs are set to invest in AI for the CFO’s Office in 2025. This follows a period of “experimentation”– 49% have used Excel and Microsoft Copilot, 36% are using NetSuite Text Enhance, and 36% Finance GPT.
AI has also emerged top of the CFO wishlist when choosing new software. The survey finds 21% of CFOs consider AI features as their top priority, followed by “price” (16%) and “analyst recommendations”.
The report also reveals that 97% of CFOs want to become CEOs and AI advancement is crucial to this goal. Some 85% of CFOs are actively advancing their AI knowledge to meet this career ambition.
Finance no longer “Cinderella” department, hitting $63,598 spend
Finally, CFOs at companies generating $800m in annual revenue spent an average of $63,598 in 2024 on their finance stack, such as ERPs, tax software and FP&A solutions. Not far behind, CFOs at companies of 50-250 employees spent $55,149. This rose to $55,735 among CFOs at companies with between 251 and 500 employees.
This spend counters a long-earned reputation of the CFO’s Office being a frugal, or a neglected “Cinderella” department. In fact, 71% of CFOs say they spend either the same or “slightly higher” on their tech stack, compared to departments, such as sales, marketing, and HR in their organizations.
In building their tech stack, tax software emerged as CFOs’ “must-have” solution (cited by 74% of CFOs) followed by accounting or Enterprise Resource Planning software (cited by 68% of CFOs). In third-place 61% prioritized the purchase of FP&A solutions–a rise of 19% compared to last year.
CEO and Co-founder of Datarails Didi Gurfinkel said: “CFOs are spending both record time and sums on aggressively building AI capabilities which will reshape every finance team and process in the next two years. We’re not just seeing technology adoption – we’re witnessing a new breed of financial leader betting on AI to drive business transformation and advance their career ambitions.”
About Datarails
Datarails is the AI-powered FP&A tool for mid-market and SMB finance teams. Datarails lets teams keep working in Excel while gaining the benefits of data consolidation, automation and advanced insights and analytics. Datarails eliminates manual data work and unlocks strategic insights enabling CFOs to get to game-changing decisions faster.
