As organizations scale AI, finance leaders are helping determine where to invest, how much autonomy to allow and what controls are needed to translate innovation into measurable value

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ —

Key takeaways

• Forty-three percent of surveyed finance leaders are prioritizing AI and advanced technology to automate operations and drive organizational success through fiscal year 2027.
• Fifty-four percent of finance leaders are leading enterprise AI and technology capital allocation decisions, while 48% oversee AI and technology spending and cost controls.
• Nearly all finance leaders (95%) are comfortable with agentic workflows in at least some finance activities — however, only 14% support full autonomy for critical decisions.
• Many finance leaders (84%) expect technology sovereignty to reshape capital allocation decisions through 2027, while 63% view it as a strategic differentiator.

Why this matters
As AI and technology reshape how organizations operate, invest and create value, finance leaders are taking on a broader enterprise role. Now in its second year, Deloitte’s “Finance Trends 2027: Shaping the next era of stakeholder value” report shows that finance leaders are moving beyond transforming the finance function to help determine where the enterprise places its technology bets; how AI is governed and funded; and how value is defined, measured and achieved.

As organizations scale AI, finance leaders are balancing ambition with trusted data, human oversight, cost discipline, and resilience amid regulatory and geopolitical change. In this environment, finance increasingly serves as an integrator — connecting strategy, investment, risk and performance — to help the enterprise move faster while keeping stakeholder value at the center.

Key quotes
“The CFO mandate is expanding from financial stewardship to helping shape how the enterprise invests in, governs and creates value from AI and technology. Finance leaders bring the measurement, discipline and enterprise perspective needed to turn AI ambition into responsible, scalable growth — connecting strategy, capital allocation, risk and performance as their organizations move through the next chapter of transformation.”
-Ed Hardy, U.S. Finance Services leader, Deloitte

“Finance leaders clearly see the potential of agentic AI, but ambition alone will not drive value at scale. Success will depend on trusted data, strong controls, human oversight and greater visibility into increasingly complex costs. CFOs who bring those elements together can help turn AI investment into sustainable enterprise value.”
-Mo Vakili, Finance Transformation National Offering Portfolio leader, Deloitte 

An expanding finance mandate

Finance leaders are taking on responsibilities that extend beyond traditional finance, including leading cross-enterprise AI and technology capital allocation (54%); overseeing AI trust, including the reliability, accuracy and explainability of AI outputs (48%); and managing AI and technology spending and cost controls (48%). Among finance leaders who have assumed these responsibilities, more than two-thirds have done so within the past three years.

To help their organizations move faster, 46% are prioritizing infrastructure modernization and data unification, while 43% are prioritizing changes to the finance operating model.

Human oversight remains central to AI adoption
Nearly all finance leaders are open to agentic AI (95%), but human oversight is expected to remain central. While 77% are comfortable with agentic solutions that move beyond recommendations into some level of autonomy, just 14% support full autonomy in critical decisions.

Finance leaders also recognize that their agentic AI ambitions are outpacing their readiness to scale. Forty-two percent say their ambitions exceed their current capabilities, citing the need to establish stronger controls before expanding adoption. Among these respondents, 41% identify employee trust in the quality of AI outputs as a leading barrier.

Managing AI cost at scale
As AI adoption advances, 60% of finance leaders say they will need more sophisticated AI cost-management practices through 2027. Those preparing for this shift are further along in their AI journeys, with higher rates of fully embedded AI productivity tools in finance (64%) and FinOps capabilities (38%) than those maintaining current practices (51% and 25%, respectively). Regulatory uncertainty (20%), complex cloud and vendor billing (19%), and difficulty integrating usage data with finance systems (15%) remain leading challenges.

Technology sovereignty reshapes investment
Eighty-four percent of finance leaders expect technology sovereignty — e.g., organizational or national independence and ownership of data, vendors, and supply chains — to significantly affect technology-related capital allocation through 2027, including material changes to technology platform investments (55%), physical assets (16%), and partnerships, M&A or legal entities (13%). At the same time, 63% view technology sovereignty as a strategic differentiator that can help organizations strengthen resilience, navigate complexity, and create long-term value. 

Rethinking the funding playbook
Even though 66% of finance leaders report that their organizations primarily use an internally driven, measurement-led approval process, there are signals that evaluation methods for funding technology investments are shifting. Among these respondents, 27% use stage-gate funding (e.g., adding funding as initiatives meet defined milestones), 25% require quantified ROI and a formal business case, and 23% rely on executive or board mandates without a precise process for measuring results.

Funding sources are similarly diverse, including private equity, sovereign wealth, and institutional capital (30%), internal capital or balance-sheet funding (29%), managed-services arrangements with shared efficiency targets (25%); and alternative co-investment structures.

About the survey
Deloitte surveyed 1,434 finance leaders across 26 countries in spring 2026, including CFOs and other senior finance executives at public and private companies with revenues of at least US$1 billion. For more information and to download a copy of the “Finance Trends 2027” report, click here.

About Deloitte

Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world’s most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500® and more than 9,000 U.S.-based private companies. At Deloitte, we strive to live our purpose of making an impact that matters for our people, clients, and communities. We bring together distinct talents, technologies, disciplines, and an ecosystem of alliances to help tackle today’s most complex business challenges and drive long-term progress. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. Bringing more than 180 years of service, our network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories. Learn how Deloitte’s approximately 470,000 people worldwide connect for impact at www.deloitte.com.

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SOURCE Deloitte