AI Adoption Surges Among Australia’s CFOs

Finance leaders across Australia are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence to increase efficiency and support long-term growth. However, many are struggling to expand its use across their organisations due to competing priorities and ongoing concerns about risk and security. While 64% of CFOs report that their finance teams now use AI, which is more than double the figure from late 2023, significant challenges remain in scaling AI adoption across entire companies.

In today’s fast-changing business environment, CFOs are under pressure to deliver more with fewer resources. They face tight margins, slowing profitability and rising costs, while customers continue to focus heavily on price. With cost control ranked as the top priority by 80% of CFOs, investing in AI appears to be a logical step forward. The challenge lies in aligning innovation with operational goals, especially when clear direction from leadership is lacking.

According to Deloitte’s CFO Sentiment Report, AI use in finance has increased quickly, reaching 64% less than two years after AI tools became widely available. Despite the fast rise in adoption, 75% of CFOs say their companies are still in the early or developing phases of their AI strategy. For those organisations currently using AI, progress often remains limited to isolated projects rather than a coordinated strategy that spans business units beyond finance.

The main obstacles to scaling AI include too many competing priorities, cited by nearly half of CFOs, a lack of skilled AI professionals, mentioned by 34%, and limited understanding of AI technologies, noted by 31%. Some of these barriers are gradually becoming less significant, but concerns related to privacy and security are on the rise. In fact, worries about data protection and digital trust have increased by 13% over the past six months, driven by growing global awareness of cyber threats and weak governance practices.

This heightened caution is also affecting how CFOs view risk. Currently, 48% consider digital disruption and technology failures as major threats, marking a 12% increase. The concern is justified. Deloitte’s research found that a loss of trust in AI can damage a company’s reputation enough to cut its market value by as much as 56%. In response, many companies are reassessing the importance of maintaining human connections in processes supported by AI.

Despite these challenges, CFOs are showing signs of a shift in mindset. Rather than using cost control only to protect financial performance, many are now redirecting savings into longer-term strategic plans, with AI seen as a critical area for investment. While most organisations are still in the early stages of realising AI’s full potential, there is a growing belief that once current barriers are addressed, AI will transform both finance functions and broader business operations.

Source: The Australian, Deloitte, Wolters Kluwer

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