The CFO mandate is evolving faster than ever as interconnected business risks demand a broader skillset from finance chiefs.
Traditional responsibilities are now a minimum requirement for finance leaders, according to The CFO Agenda 2026, from the 2026 Oliver Wyman Forum and the New York Stock Exchange. “CFOs have been expanding their role beyond core reporting and control functions for years, but recent disruptions have sharply accelerated this evolution,” the survey said.
The interwoven risk environment is propelling finance chiefs into a broader strategic role. “There is no single dominant shock driving changes in the role,” the survey said. “Instead, CFOs are responding to several major disruptions that are interconnected and often reinforcing.”
In the survey, about one-quarter (24%) of leaders cite business model disruption and competitive dynamics as the single biggest force changing their role, followed by AI, digital, and data transformation (20%) and macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility (17%).
AI and digital transformation “sit at the centre” of several business pressures for finance leaders. “They are reshaping business models, intensifying competition, altering workforce needs, and raising the stakes of technology competition among major economies,” the survey said.
Consequently, CFOs expect their role as transformation leaders to increase the most (72%). Other top choices for role change are more involvement in business cases for enterprise transformation (64%) and overall disruption (52%).
The survey incorporated the views of nearly 500 finance chiefs from listed and private companies globally.
Transformation is top of mind
Transformation sits top of the CFO agenda as more finance leaders delegate day-to-day tasks to teams and technology. Strategy and transformation were cited as the most important roles among CFOs at companies of all sizes.
While reporting, control, and data stewardship still matter, fewer than one in ten expect those areas to grow in importance.
Priorities vary by regional differences, the survey said, but the sharper differentiator isn’t geography. Instead, it’s AI maturity. As automation matures, the CFO’s role shifts “from managing the work to setting the standards”.
CFOs at organisations leading on AI deployment are nearly twice as likely to see themselves as “enterprise insights partners”, the survey said. They are less likely to define their role around financial planning or reporting — and the gap is projected to grow, as nearly 80% of leaders at companies leading on AI transformation expect strategy and transformation to rise in importance over the next three years; just 6% say the same for financial planning.
Finance workforce predictions
As automation surpasses manual work, leaders expect traditional responsibilities to reduce while demand for more impactful skillsets rises.
“The finance workforce will change — but more in terms of capabilities than numbers. Over the next decade, automation and AI are expected to reduce labour-intensive finance operations,” the survey said. “Yet demand is expected to increase for finance capabilities in enterprise steering, advanced analytics, business partnership, and transformation execution.”
Staffing is not expected to fall dramatically in the near term, according to respondents, but 64% said they expect their organisations to shift away from junior roles, suggesting a more significant change in the composition of finance staff.
Overall, 61% of CFOs expect to maintain the size of their finance workforce, 30% expect to decrease it by more than 10%, and 9% are expecting an increase of more than 10%. The employment forecasts vary by company size, with the largest group of companies in the survey more likely to project a headcount decline.
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.
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Articles
“Future‑Ready Finance Leader: From Preparation to Performance”, FM magazine, 27 April 2026
“Rise2040: Envisioning the Future of Accounting and Finance”, FM magazine, 27 March 2026
“4 Finance Trends for 2026”, FM magazine, 20 February 2026
“CGMA Professional Qualification: The 2025 Upgrade”, FM magazine, 5 August 2025
“Power Skills and Core Competencies for an Evolving Profession”, FM magazine, 18 June 2025
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