Dive Brief:
- Most CFOs expect headcount in their finance functions to either stay flat or decrease over the next three years — but the more crucial change coming for finance may be the skills needed as spending on artificial intelligence rises, a recent survey by Oliver Wyman found.
- Though 30% of CFOs expect to reduce headcount over that time, 61% expect a decrease of less than 10% or for headcount to stay flat, the survey released Tuesday by Oliver Wyman, a Marsh company, and the New York Stock Exchange found.
- However, “the more significant change could be in the composition of the finance staff,” according to the survey, which noted the integration of AI and automation into the function is expected to eliminate “labor-intensive finance operations.” Sixty-four percent of survey respondents said they expect their finance teams to shift away from more junior roles, a change which “reflects a deeper change in the work itself,” according to the survey.
Dive Insight:
As companies continue to navigate ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, many are leaning harder on their finance functions to provide the insights and strategic direction they need to operate effectively in a dynamic environment.
That’s creating the need for CFOs to have a broader skillset behind traditional finance, the survey found. Seventy percent of finance chiefs cited “shaping strategy and transformation” as one of their top three priorities, while 72% expect the importance of that responsibility to grow over the next three years.
While remaining core to the role, meanwhile, less than one in 10 CFOs anticipate reporting, data stewardship and other more traditional CFO responsibilities will rise in importance over that same time period, Oliver Wyman found.
CFOs, therefore, are tasked with both transforming their finance team to provide those insights while navigating their own ongoing evolution from finance stewards to creators of value and strategy.
The finance chief is “simultaneously operator, allocator, and analytical copilot,” the survey of nearly 500 global CFOs found — tasked with ownership over five distinct agendas, from effectively scaling AI in the organization and balancing cost and growth to the redesign and transformation of the finance function.
To effectively execute on those sometimes conflicting agendas, finance chiefs are expecting to change the makeup, as well as the size, of their finance teams — seeking a leaner, but more experienced finance team supported by new technology, Oliver Wyman found.
The “traditional finance pyramid is starting to flatten into more of a middle-heavy diamond,” according to the survey, which found 41% of respondents expect a shift to more midlevel finance roles while 23% anticipate a move to more senior roles.
The recalibrated team, meanwhile, is expected to make further use of AI, which many leaders — 80% see as a key lever for change and transformation within the finance function.
Meanwhile, 61% of respondents expecting their organizations spending on enterprise AI will grow from between 5% to 20% by the end of this year.
However, there still remains a large gap between the pace of AI investment and that of enablement. Seventy percent of CFOs said the use of AI in key finance activities are still at the planning or piloting stage, while only 8% have deployed AI-enabled solutions or agents at scale.
CFOs also need some convincing when it comes to using AI as a way to create value: Only 6% cited AI investment as their top way of driving up enterprise value, “suggesting skepticism around the effectiveness of efforts to date,” according to the survey.
