A new global study by Deloitte sheds light on how finance leaders are evolving beyond traditional roles to become strategic drivers of growth, especially in uncertain times.
The firm’s Finance Trends 2026 report is based on a survey of 1,326 global finance executives (chiefly chief finance officers or CFOs-in-waiting at large companies with revenues over US$1 billion) and interviews with nine senior finance executives.
The report identifies five key trends that are likely to have the most direct impact on how the finance function operates and how it contributes to broader enterprise strategy through 2026.
Speedy and holistic planning
One of the clearest signals from the Deloitte study is that many finance leaders feel caught between managing cost pressures and finding the next growth opportunity.
Supply chain disruptions, local labour shortages and cross-border logistical stress are among the top drivers of cost volatility.
In response, 30% of respondents plan to bolster advanced scenario-planning capabilities, and 28% intend to build more agile governance models to speed decision making.
But the lack of alignment in priorities is striking.
Forty-eight percent of respondents ranked “planning for external challenges” and “adopting new technology” as their top concern – only four percentage points higher than the fifth-most cited priority, “protecting resources through cost reduction,” at 44%.
This narrow gap suggests many finance leaders are juggling multiple urgent priorities at once.
CFOs as (digital) strategists
The study finds that over half of surveyed finance leaders (57%) now regard themselves among the top influencers of organisational strategy.
These “strategy-influencing” leaders also tend to carry a broader remit, taking on 20% more responsibilities than their less proactive counterparts, whom the report dubbed as “strategy-supporting” in contrast.
They are also more likely to lean on technology to scale their impact:
- 48% of strategy-influencing leaders deploy cloud solutions to optimize costs (vs. 33% strategy-supporting)
- 43% use artificial intelligence (AI) to close productivity gaps (vs. 36%)
37% report clear measurable value from AI (vs. 17%) - 48% have fully integrated AI agents into finance (vs. 18%)
Finance-led cost control
The study also reveals that finance leaders who directly manage cost and expense oversight tend to outperform those in supporting cost roles.
Among the survey participants, 36% (and 42% of CFOs) say they primarily own cost management.
Those leaders are more likely to meet or exceed cost-savings goals (47%) compared to those in supporting roles (39%).
Additionally, many organisations prioritize deploying cloud infrastructure (51%) and AI tools (49%) to identify cost-reduction opportunities.
The jump from AI to real ROI
While AI adoption is widespread in finance, the road to clear returns is still bumpy. According to Deloitte, 63% of finance functions have fully deployed AI solutions.
Yet only 21% of those respondents believe their AI investments have already delivered clear, measurable value, and only 14% say they’ve fully integrated agentic AI (ie. AI agents operating autonomously in finance workflows).
This suggests that organisations struggle to scale AI from pilot experiment to embedded everyday tool.
Next-gen finance talent
Finally, Deloitte spotlights the growing priority of technical skills within finance teams.
Sixty-four percent of respondents say they plan to infuse more AI, automation, and data analysis expertise into their teams over 2025-26.
This shift comes amid talent pressures: CPA exam candidates have dropped 27% over the past decade, and many accounting professionals are nearing retirement.
To bridge gaps, leaders are turning to AI and automation (40%) and targeted training (39%).
Nontraditional hiring (35%) and bringing in talent from other departments (28%) are rising tactics as well.
Against this backdrop, the Financial Services Institute will host an AI Seminar at Hotel Indigo on 30 October, featuring an international AI trainer who will demonstrate how businesses and the public sector can practically integrate AI tools into their daily workflows.
