As new automation tools powered by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) may help solve some of finance’s challenges, many CFOs have resisted diving into GenAI products. According to new data from Deloitte’s 2024 first-quarter CFO Signals report, corporate boards may have a similar sentiment when it comes to bringing GenAI into the finance realm.
Two-thirds (66%) of CFOs told Deloitte their boards of directors are either not at all interested or “neither encouraged nor discouraged” about the finance department adopting GenAI. Only 6% of CFOs said their board members were very much encouraged to implement GenAI specifically into finance, with 28% “somewhat encouraged.”
How Boards View It
Despite a lack of enthusiasm by board members about implementing GenAI into the finance function, there seems to be more of a consensus on the value the technology could bring to the enterprise as a whole. More than four in 10 (43%) of CFOs said their boards were somewhat encouraged about adopting GenAI across the business, with almost another fifth (15%) saying their boards are very much interested in incorporating GenAI. The survey didn’t touch on in what areas board members were eager to see GenAI adopted.
What CFOs Say
For CFOs whose organizations are exploring the use of GenAI, the areas where they wish to implement the technology are spread across the business. The most popular area of desired implementation was information technology (64%). Finance, mentioned by just under half of respondents (49%), trailed business operations and customer/client services, which were the second- and third-most-popular areas where CFOs wanted to see GenAI applied.
Deloitte also asked CFOs if they believe GenAI adoption has the potential to move the needle on worker productivity. Nearly half (46%) said they expect GenAI to increase productivity across the business between 1% and 5%. Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents said they expect a 5.1% to 10% increase in productivity. Some CFOs don’t see much of a boost to productivity at all — nearly a fifth (17%) said they expect productivity increases to be less than 1%.
GenAI Budget Allocations and Talent
Most organizations aren’t allocating major portions of their budget to GenAI products. More than six in ten (62%) CFOs said their budgets in 2025 will have less than 1% dedicated to GenAI. Just over a third (34%) said their GenAI allocations will be between 1% and 5% of their total budget.
Consumer goods companies are far more likely to invest in GenAI soon than any other industries surveyed. Fourteen percent of consumer goods CFOs reported between 5% and 25% of their total budget being allocated toward GenAI. No CFOs in any other industry reported allocating anything above 5%.
A major part of spending on GenAI tools are the costs of hiring or upskilling employees.
Half (50%) of CFO respondents said they plan to develop existing talent. More than one-third of the CFOs said they would hire external talent (37%) and the same percentage plan to purchase vendor solutions and services (37%). Over a quarter (27%) said they would tap into their company’s existing technology teams to get the skills needed for GenAI.
The CFO Signals survey for the first quarter of 2024 was conducted between Feb. 5, 2024, and Feb. 20, 2024. A total of 116 CFOs participated in this quarter's survey. This survey seeks responses from CFOs across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the vast majority are from companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.