Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a future concept inside the finance function; firms have already applied it to daily operations. The latest PYMNTS Intelligence CAIO report shows a clear, disciplined progression in how CFOs use the technology. Organizations have focused on adoption in structured, rules-based tasks that improve visibility and control. Willingness to expand AI’s role increases as tasks become more analytical, but drops sharply when complexity, cross-system coordination or external risk are present. The data reveals a finance organization moving deliberately. CFOs are not resisting AI. They are sequencing trust.
AI Deployment in Finance
Control First
Forty-five percent of CFOs report using AI to monitor working capital and cash flows.
AI adoption inside finance today is highest where rules are clear and outcomes are measurable. Nearly half of CFOs already rely on the technology to monitor cash positions, audit readiness, anomaly detection and compliance oversight. These functions benefit from automation because it reduces manual effort without needing judgment calls that could materially affect financial outcomes. By contrast, forecasting and cross-system orchestration lag due to data integration challenges and trust concerns. The data shows that AI is currently a visibility tool, and not yet a decision-maker. Finance leaders are using it to surface issues faster, not to resolve them independently.
Decision-Making and Execution
Fifty-two percent of CFOs would allow AI to recommend liquidity and payment timing adjustments.
CFOs are increasingly comfortable with AI supporting judgment-driven analysis, as long as final authority remains with humans. Over half would accept AI-generated recommendations on liquidity and payment timing. More than 40% of CFOs trust the technology to manage audit logs, integrity alerts and variance analysis. This signals a shift from automation to advisory support. However, willingness declines sharply when recommendations require coordination across multiple systems. CFOs want AI to frame decisions, not execute them when operational risk is high.
AI for Regulation and Compliance
Sixty-two percent of CFOs would allow AI to automatically monitor and adapt to new regulations.
CFOs see value in AI to support complex regulatory and strategic analysis, particularly in information-heavy, time-sensitive areas. Regulatory monitoring and compliance reporting rank highest among future autonomous use cases. Yet the same executives remain leery about delegating high-stakes responsibilities such as mergers and acquisitions, negotiations or acting as a virtual CFO. The boundary is clear: CFOs welcome the technology when used as a strategic assistant, but not as a substitute for executive judgment in externally facing or irreversible decisions.
Smoothing Frictions
Forty-three percent of CFOs view AI-driven dynamic budget reallocation as a high-impact efficiency gain.
The strongest expectations for AI impact emerge where finance teams experience the most friction today. Budget reallocation, workflow coordination and reconciliation are labor-intensive because they span multiple systems and data sources. CFOs believe the technology can deliver its greatest efficiency gains by eliminating this fragmentation. Notably, these are not areas of highest current adoption, underscoring a gap between where the technology is trusted today and where it is expected to deliver value tomorrow.
Future Impact of AI
CFOs expect the greatest future impact of AI to be in regulatory adaptation and multi-entity consolidation.
Looking forward, CFO expectations follow a clear path. Early AI improved monitoring and control. Near-term AI is expected to streamline cross-system workflows. In the long term, CFOs anticipate that it will transform the most complex and risk-sensitive areas of finance, including regulatory compliance and multi-entity consolidation. These tasks combine high judgment, high risk and high manual effort. The data suggests that once trust and integration barriers are handled, CFOs believe AI will move from supporting finance operations to reshaping how financial decisions are made.
About
PYMNTS Intelligence is a leading global data and analytics platform that uses proprietary data and methods to provide actionable insights on what’s now and what’s next in payments, commerce and the digital economy. Its team of data scientists includes leading economists, econometricians, survey experts, financial analysts and marketing scientists with deep experience in the application of data to the issues that define the future of the digital transformation of the global economy. This multi-lingual team has conducted original data collection and analysis in more than three dozen global markets for some of the world’s leading publicly traded and privately held firms.
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