Dive Brief:

• Three-quarters of CFOs globally expect their technology budgets to rise this year, with nearly half (48%) anticipating increases of 10% or more, according to survey results released by Gartner this month.
• The surge reflects technology’s role as a “strategic enabler,” driven by ongoing digital transformation, accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence and heightened cybersecurity demands, Gartner said in a client report on the findings shared with CFO Dive and summarized in a Feb. 10 press release. At the same time, Gartner noted that spending on staff is expected to shrink. 
• The real story lies “in collapsing headcount growth expectations, from 6% in 2025 to just 2% in 2026 with just 21% of CFOs planning staff increases of 4% to 9%, down from 31% last year,” Nauman Abbasi, vice president analyst in Gartner’s finance practice, said in the release. “This marks a structural pivot from labor expansion to optimization driven by automation and AI that deliver productivity gains without proportional increases in headcount.”

Dive Insight:

Gartner projects that worldwide information technology spending will reach $6.15 trillion in 2026, up 10.8% from the prior year.

U.S. companies are investing more heavily in emerging technologies such as AI than their global counterparts, spending an average of $190 million annually compared to the global average of $174 million, KPMG said in a January report. KPMG polled 2,500 global tech professionals from companies with more than $100 million in revenue, spanning a variety of sectors.

Few American companies have reached full operational maturity when it comes to these tech implementations, with only 10% describing such projects as “fully scaled and continually evolving,” down from 25% last year, KPMG found. 

While IT remains a top budget priority for CFOs, the magnitude of spending growth in this area varies by industry, with the banking, technology and healthcare sectors seeing the biggest acceleration, according to Gartner’s research.

Gartner also found that most CFOs are carving out space for AI in their own finance technology budgets, but investment levels remain modest for the majority. Today, 47% of CFOs allocate just 1% to 5% of finance tech spend to AI, and 25% allocate 6% to 10%. Only 7% allocate more than 20% to AI.

Yet, the outlook points “decisively toward accelerated AI spending in finance,” Gartner said, with nearly 60% of CFOs planning a boost of 10% or more. Cuts are “virtually nonexistent,” according to the study.

“As AI literacy grows and legacy systems modernize, CFOs now view AI as a broader enterprise capability: automating the close and reconciliations while enhancing planning through predictive forecasting, scenario modeling and real-time insights,” the report said. “CFOs should optimize before scaling, spending only where business cases are strong and outcomes are measurable.”

Gartner said it surveyed 303 CFOs and other senior finance leaders across multiple industries and geographies from September through October.