The latest Future of Finance research from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants reveals several key focus areas for finance and business leaders.
Rebecca McCaffry, FCMA, CGMA, the Association’s associate technical director, joined the FM podcast to discuss survey results, highlighting leaders’ top transformation strategies, barriers facing organisations looking to upskill talent, and notable areas of progress in finance teams since a previous survey on the topic six years earlier.
McCaffry also explains the interplay between people and process and one key preference that signals a “significant shift away” from organisations’ workforce strategies in 2019.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
- Finance and business leaders’ top priorities for transformation.
- Consistencies and shifts in focus from 2019 to 2025.
- The interplay between process and people priorities.
- Skills gap challenges and what risks they pose for organisations.
- Two points of progress since 2019.
- One key strategic area gaining traction and investment.
Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:
— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.
Transcript
Steph Brown: Hi, listeners. Welcome back. On this episode of the FM podcast, we’ll be exploring some new developments from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants’ latest research on the Future of Finance. I’m your host, Steph Brown. I’m very pleased to welcome Rebecca McCaffry, FCMA, CGMA, associate technical director at the Association, back on the podcast to look into some of these findings today.
We’ll be discussing key trends identified from those conversations with finance and other business leaders, leaders’ top priorities for transforming the finance function, and how organisations are approaching skills gap challenges.
Welcome back, Rebecca.
Rebecca McCaffry: It’s great to be back, Steph.
Brown: It’s great to have you on again to talk about the Association’s research project on the Future of Finance. It’s been a couple of years since we last checked in on the podcast, so I’m chuffed to catch up with you on this topic today.
Thanks for coming on.
McCaffry: No problem.
Brown: In our last discussion about AICPA and CIMA’s Future of Finance research, there was a real focus back in 2023 around value of people, soft skills, and mindset. What are finance leaders’ priorities now and has this shifted?
McCaffry: Well, in our latest research, we’re looking quite specifically at finance transformation.
So, given the world that we live in today, it’s not really surprising that the main priorities for transformation are around data, data analytics, efficiency — all of that technical stuff.
But when we look at what those transformation initiatives actually focus upon, they’re very much about the external customer experience and how those customers are served. So, that human element is still a major consideration for leaders today.
Brown: This is a research project that, of course, dates back to 2019, and the profession has evolved quite dramatically since then. But reflecting on those earlier insights alongside this year’s findings, are there any notable trends or changes?
McCaffry: Let’s start with what hasn’t changed: Efficiency savings and cost savings are still top priority for transformation. Most of the budget gets spent on tech and tech implementation, so no really big surprises there. And the top two critical success factors for finance transformation are entirely focused on mindset and culture.
Firstly, we’ve got the growth mindset of the workforce, which is our internally driven motivation to learn and evolve.
Secondly, the motivation to make or embrace change — that’s more driven by leadership and management — that was the second-highest critical success factor at 55%. So, there’s definitely recognition of these human factors.
We also seem to be getting a lot better at transforming finance. Leaders are reporting much higher satisfaction with progress than they did back in 2019. I think this is probably due to the fact that as a profession, we’re becoming much more comfortable with change.
Certainly, we’re seeing a lot more recognition that finance professionals are able to deal well with complexity, an increase of over 50% since 2019. Again, that’s a really positive thing.
Brown: The latest data revealed that digital skills remain the single largest observed skills gap, which was cited by 40% of respondents.
Despite this, process priorities, in many areas, overtake skill development priorities for finance leaders. And this finding is even more pronounced in HR leaders surveyed.
What does this indicate in terms of the strategy and expectations of those organisations?
McCaffry: What we’re seeing here is two different types of priorities. We’ve got process, which would include things like improved data analytics, efficiency savings, operating models. Again, the technical stuff. Then, people priorities like upskilling or improving the customer experience.
Now, in reality, the two go together because even the most advanced technical processes rely on human oversight at some point. So, I found it really interesting that the HR leaders we spoke to tended to rank process priorities higher than people priorities. But then perhaps that’s a sign that they’re very confident in our existing skillset.
Back in 2019, two of the top five transformation priorities focused on people, customer experience, and upskilling. But now, in 2025, when we ran this survey, the entire top five relate to process priorities. So, organisations are focusing on improving their internal efficiency, which is great. But they need to bear in mind that they also need suitably skilled people to achieve this capability. It’s really important that we don’t lose sight of this fact.
Brown: That’s a really interesting note. I suppose sometimes think about how things are becoming so digital, we think about loss of personalisation. But you bring up that the customer experience and improving that is a massive focus for leaders.
But continuing on skills gaps, critical thinking skills cited by 35% of leaders surveyed closely followed digital skills as a leading skills gap. More surprisingly, though, as many as 33% identified traditional accountancy skills as a significant skills gap.
What challenges do those gaps present for transforming the finance function?
McCaffry: I think the big challenge here isn’t digital skills or critical thinking or accountancy skills: It’s actually the combination of the three.
We know that most of our budget is allocated to tech, but data is a challenge, and we have a skills gap around digital. We’re investing heavily in AI, but one-third of our teams lack the critical thinking skills. Even the good old reliable accountant’s toolkit of technical knowledge and experience is coming under pressure as well.
This brings the risk of overreliance on AI rather than technical knowledge to address workplace challenges. At the same time, we know that our data foundations aren’t great and the AI is only as good as the data that’s beneath it.
I think this is really quite a worry, Steph. We need to maintain that old-fashioned scepticism and judgement even in this modern age.
Brown: Speaking of challenges. Overall, what are the main obstacles facing businesses looking to upskill and develop talent, according to the latest survey?
McCaffry: What I’m seeing is two types of barriers. Firstly, we’re not investing enough in the workforce. There’s not enough time to invest in skills. There’s a high level of staff attrition. And over half of the leaders we spoke to reported that there was insufficient investment in hiring, onboarding, skills development. Even though we know that the finance workforce is highly interested in learning new skills. So, something is going a bit awry there.
Secondly, we’ve got these tech-related barriers. We’ve got overreliance on AI, insufficient understanding of AI, and underinvestment in relevant technologies.
Adding to all of this, we’re also seeing a buy-over-build preference in which two-thirds of leaders prioritise hiring new staff rather than developing the staff they’ve already got. This is a really significant shift away from the 2019 results, which very much prioritised existing staff and developing their skills — working with what you’ve got, if you like.
On a more positive note, the vast majority of leaders we spoke to agreed that their organisation prioritises skills development for finance, which is always a great thing to hear.
Brown: In light of these findings, what would you encourage leaders to take away from this research to ensure their organisations are prioritising long-term strategy over short-term fixes or solutions?
McCaffry: I think what we need to recognise is that transformation isn’t a one-off event; businesses are constantly transforming.
But to be able to sustain this change, there needs to be a long-term, internal commitment to change, which is where the workforce comes in. There’s a big risk that we’re deprioritising the internal commitment that we need to sustain capability and actually embrace that further change.
It’s not all bad news, though. When we compare with the 2019 study, we see increased self-confidence and competence among today’s finance professionals when they’re faced with change and disruption, and we’re also seeing a lot more innovation around problem-solving, which is exactly what is needed.
Brown: Thanks, Rebecca.
In closing, is there anything else on this topic you think is important to mention?
McCaffry: Yeah. One thing we’ve not talked about so far is leadership skills. We’re very used to hearing about strategic leadership, aren’t we? And the importance of developing strong leaders who really understand the business.
Finance professionals are very good at this. We do understand the workings of the businesses that we serve. But one thing that’s really coming through at the moment in the data is that investment in leadership skills at the team level, at the functional level is really gaining traction, and that’s both now and in the future.
I see this as reflecting the immediate need for strong operational leadership to navigate and manage teams through these repeated cycles of transformational change. It also offers great potential to finance professionals wanting to develop their leadership skills.
As I’ve said all along — even six years ago I was saying the same thing — finance transformation is as much about people as it is about process. There’s so much opportunity out there if you want to take it.
Brown: As you stated, transformation is not a one-off event, it is a process. So, I think that is an excellent and encouraging point to end what has been a great conversation.
Rebecca McCaffry, thanks for your time and insights.
When the Future of Finance research is published, we will include a link in this episode’s show notes.
I’m Steph Brown with FM. Thanks for listening.
