Artificial intelligence adoption inside the finance function is accelerating as investor-backed companies push CFOs to improve operational efficiency, modernize reporting environments and support an increasingly active M&A market.
Only 3% of finance leaders surveyed by accounting software firm Consero Global said they remain skeptical about future AI payoffs, while more than 75% of AI investments in finance are already generating positive returns within 12 months, according to the firm’s 2026 CFO Report released this week.
The report, conducted in collaboration with Cascade Insights, surveyed 102 financial leaders from venture capital and private equity investor-backed companies and found that AI adoption has reached 97% across finance departments, up from 76% in 2025. More than two-fifths (42%) of respondents said AI is now broadly or fully embedded across their finance organizations, double the level reported a year earlier.
Finance leaders continue rebuilding operations for scale
The findings suggest many finance leaders remain heavily focused on strengthening the operational foundation of their finance function versus gathering shelfware as investor expectations stay elevated across growth, profitability and modernization initiatives.
Investor priorities were nearly evenly distributed across revenue growth (51%), cash flow optimization (51%), EBITDA and margin expansion (50%) and digital transformation (50%), placing finance leaders in the middle of both performance execution and operational change.
That pressure appears to be shaping where CFOs are directing investment across the finance organization. Respondents ranked cash flow and working capital optimization as the top finance function priority, followed by better data infrastructure and analytics. Faster and more automated close processes ranked third, while AI adoption and automation ranked fourth.
Operational work also continues to dominate much of the finance function despite increased AI deployment. More than half (57%) of respondents said they remain skewed toward operational responsibilities, a figure the report said has remained largely unchanged since 2022 despite rising AI investment. At the same time, almost half (45%) of finance leaders said they still spend more than 60% of their time on manual tasks, which the report described as an “efficiency gap” inside the finance function.
Core accounting workflows also remain highly manual. More than one-quarter (27%) of respondents said they still rely primarily on spreadsheets for reconciliations and adjustments, while only 13% reported achieving a fully automated close process. Even so, almost two-thirds (65%) said they can complete their monthly close within nine days, highlighting how finance teams continue relying on labor-intensive processes to maintain reporting speed.
The report found that many organizations are still struggling to operationalize AI at enterprise scale despite growing confidence in its financial returns. One-third (33%) of respondents cited data quality, accessibility and completeness as the top obstacle preventing broader AI deployment, while 31% pointed to difficulties scaling successful pilot projects into enterprise-wide rollouts. Another 28% cited unclear use case prioritization, while 28% said siloed systems continue to limit integration across the business.
Consero said the findings reflect a broader evolution in the CFO role as finance leaders become increasingly responsible for enterprise systems, operational infrastructure and data architecture in addition to traditional financial oversight.
“The 2026 data indicates that the ‘Future CFO’ must be as much a technologist and data architect as a financial steward,” the report stated.
M&A activity and AI investment continue accelerating
Outside of its findings on AI’s role in finance, the report also points to a highly active M&A environment taking shape across investor-backed companies over the next year.
Nearly all respondents (99%) said they expect at least one material transaction to impact them within the next 12 months, including acquisitions, equity raises or company sales. Half of respondents said they are actively pursuing add-on or bolt-on acquisitions, representing a 50% year-over-year increase in acquisition activity, according to the report. Another 44% said they are pursuing a sale or recapitalization, while 43% said they are prioritizing equity raises.
Nearly half (48%) of respondents said they expect to either sell privately or go public within the next year. Exit readiness, however, ranked as the lowest finance function priority among respondents, suggesting many organizations are concentrating resources on operational execution and infrastructure modernization before shifting attention toward an IPO or M&A preparation.
Scaling finance operations to keep pace with growth ranked as a key risk concern for 2026, with 34% of respondents choosing that as their top risk, while 32% picked audit readiness and 31% selected cybersecurity. The report also found that balancing short-term financial targets with longer-term strategic investments ranked as the top challenge in meeting investor expectations.
The role of outside finance and accounting partners is also evolving alongside those operational pressures. Nearly nine in 10 finance leaders (87%) said they use third-party finance and accounting providers. Use of external partners for operational and management reporting support doubled since 2024 to 51%, while support related specifically to M&A transactions dropped by more than half to 25%. Cash flow management support remained steady at 48%, while financial due diligence support remained at 47%.
The report also found finance leaders continuing to expand AI investment across accounting, reporting and forecasting functions as organizations search for measurable operational returns. Audit preparation and controls ranked as the fastest-returning AI use case in the report.
Management reporting and variance analysis ranked as the top AI use case in finance at 32%, followed by data extraction and document processing at 31%. Financial forecasting and scenario planning came in at 30%, reflecting how AI deployment is increasingly centered on reporting accuracy, workflow efficiency and planning support inside finance organizations.
The report also found that organizations continue hiring inside finance departments despite expanding AI deployment. Nearly nine in 10 companies (87%) said they are increasing finance headcount, with Consero pointing to growing demand for employees with analytical and systems-oriented skill sets needed to support AI-enabled finance functions. Nearly three in four organizations said they plan to raise AI investment by between 5% and 20% over the next year.
At the same time, concerns around disruption continue to grow even as confidence in AI returns rises. More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents said they are more concerned about AI disrupting their business model than they were a year ago. Concern was highest among software and technology vendors at 84%, followed by healthcare technology and investment management firms at 63% each.
