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Pigment’s Annual Office of the CFO report reveals growing optimism in AI amongst finance leaders, with 72% already considering input from AI in making business decisions.
Pigment, an AI-powered business planning and performance platform, today revealed its annual Office of the CFO report which examines how finance leaders navigated 2024, their outlook for the year ahead, and the key issues shaping their agenda. As the Office of the CFO continues to evolve, AI is becoming an increasingly important tool, but while trust and optimism are growing, most companies are still years away from fully harnessing its potential.
The past year proved difficult for companies, with many impacted by market developments, inflation, a fluctuating economy, and elections in key regions. Internally, finance teams were being held back by slow decision-making, a lack of collaboration, and difficulties in talent recruitment and retention.
Despite these challenges, finance leaders have begun 2025 with a renewed sense of opportunity. While many expect last year’s threats to persist, 77% believe market conditions will improve. This optimism is reflected in increased budgets across the board, with the largest investment focused on training and upskilling. Notably, the majority of organizations have already implemented or plan to implement AI-related retraining initiatives - a sign of AI’s growing role in reshaping finance teams.
While finance teams are cautiously optimistic about what the future holds, this isn’t translating to confidence in planning for the long-term. Only 20% of finance leaders feel confident in planning beyond six months, and just 10% express confidence in making decisions two years or more into the future.
When asked what’s preventing them from taking a long-term approach finance leaders pointed to two key barriers: a pressure to be overly reactive to immediate pressures, and an inability to easily conduct scenario modeling or forecasting
As a result, many organizations find themselves constantly responding to the present rather than proactively shaping their future.
AI adoption is accelerating, with 82% of finance leaders either implementing AI tools or planning to do so. While much of the conversation has focused on AI’s potential to boost productivity, finance leaders say its greatest impact lies in improving collaboration across departments. Trust in AI-driven insights is also growing, with 72% of leaders willing to consider AI-generated input in business decisions - up from 68% the previous year.
Despite progress, key barriers to AI adoption remain including concerns around security, data quality and integrating AI successfully. Looking ahead, most finance leaders see a two-to-three-year window as the timeframe for fully realizing AI’s value, with 54% expecting to be well-equipped to maximize their AI investments by then.
Read the full report here.
Data was collected on behalf of Pigment in December 2024, from 2,500 full-time finance leaders who work in firms with 500 or more employees.
1,000 respondents were from the USA, with 500 each coming from the UK, Germany, France.
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