CFOs are dealing with unending uncertainty, something that is expected to persist for some time. As the talent shortage reaches new extremes, geopolitical instability roils on, and technology adoption demands a scorching pace, how are finance chiefs expected to achieve growth and success in 2026? What CFO business strategy will help balance costs with growth and achieve strategic goals? In a recent roundtable of CFOs, the current business climate has been termed ‘frog-boiling’, where you remain unaware of gradual shifts around you until one day you realize you are doing business in a world you no longer recognize. So, what is the best plan of action for CFOs to manage change under these circumstances?
One of the key concerns for stability and continuity stems from the shortage of finance professionals, which is expected to worsen with three-quarters of accounting professionals within 15 years of retirement, according to the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. Where talent and AI adoption are well-recognized internal risks, external risks are complex and unpredictable, from global trade restrictions to cybersecurity and inflation. 2026 will prove to be a pivotal year where CFOs will have to don multiple hats – and act as the Chief Playmaker – partnering right for growth, strategizing for uncertainty, driving empathetic people strategies, and being the technology champion for AI.
In this blog, we dive into what CFOs can expect to work in their favour—and what won’t—in the year 2026.
Key Takeaways
- CFOs are shifting from scorekeepers to strategic value creators, leading enterprise-wide decisions on growth, transformation, and risk rather than focusing only on reporting.​
- AI, automation, and advanced analytics are central to 2026 CFO strategy, enabling faster forecasting, better cash visibility, and leaner back-office operations.​
- Resilience in an uncertain macro environment is a core theme, with CFOs stress-testing scenarios, preserving liquidity, and balancing growth investments with cost discipline.​
- Finance talent and operating models are being redesigned, combining shared services, outsourcing, and centers of excellence to access skills in data, analytics, and digital tools.​
- CFOs are expected to champion governance, ESG, and compliance, aligning financial strategy with regulations, risk management, and stakeholder expectations.​
2026 Trends That Will Work in Favor of CFOs
In 2026, you can expect several significant positive developments that will ensure proactive risk management, opportunity optimization, people development, and technology evangelization.
Automation Maturity and Technology Adoption
AI adoption will help take many repetitive, routine, and tedious tasks off your employees’ plates. In fact, a recent study by Medius says that ‘routine, repetitive finance work is draining your profits, people, and potential.’ It also says that ‘repetitive work costs UK firms £179 billion in lost productivity, and in the US, that number skyrockets to $1.4 trillion.’
The ‘boring job’ tag has also done much disservice to the profession, with Gen Z hesitating to take up core F&A roles, fearing the rut.
With automation, CFOs can eliminate repetitive, error-prone tasks and foster a rewarding workplace where finance professionals can focus more on value-adding activities.
As technology takes centre stage, it is critical to assess the digital talent in your team for future analytics, automation, and business partnering needs. It is important to note that technology and talent go hand in hand, and to maximize one, you need to invest in the other. Technology know-how and skills are as crucial as domain knowledge, so when CFOs pivot their talent strategy to optimize talent without formal degrees but with different skills, as mentioned in EY’s 2024 Tax and Finance Operations survey, they can offset challenges from talent shortages to some extent.
Map your teams’ skills across key capabilities such as analytics and automation, and put in place upskilling and hiring plans accordingly. This will also enhance your readiness for digital transformation.
Your future finance team will be a mix of global talent with not just technical acumen, but also digital, AI, and strategic capabilities.
Select an element to maximize. Press ESC to cancel.Rise of the CFO Office as a Strategic Decision Maker
CFOs have deep insights into not only financial numbers and performance but also a broad understanding of the business and markets, technology leadership, and data-driven advisory acumen. This places finance leaders in a unique position to influence critical decisions driving the enterprise forward.
In 2026, this leadership evolution presents opportunities to make a sustainable impact on growth and contribute meaningfully to building future-ready organizations.
With optimized technology adoption, CFOs will be able to build finance as a strategic internal consulting partner. As you move from record-keepers to change enablers, leverage learnings from operational inefficiencies, pricing risks, and cash flow challenges to co-create solutions, partnering with functions across the business. This helps build trust across the organization and accelerate enterprise growth and value creation.
Stabilizing Interest Rates & Ease in Capital Planning
After several years of volatility, 2026 is expected to bring a period of relative stability in interest rates. For CFOs, this stability is more than just a macroeconomic relief—it directly influences planning accuracy, investment decisions, and long-term financial strategy.
It is expected that interest rates will continue their downward trend steadily to address the economic slowdown. For CFOs, this presents an opportunity to lock in interest rates on mortgages and long-term loans to reduce the risk of a future rate increase. With increasing focus on portfolio resilience to combat volatility, CFOs can drive data-backed investment strategies.
Predictability in financial planning often translates to stronger communication with boards, lenders, and investors, who value steady outlooks over speculative swings. With fewer surprises in borrowing costs, the CFO’s business strategy can focus on transformation initiatives, technology investments, and business growth rather than constant recalibration of financial models.
Flexible, On-Demand Finance Talent
As the focus shifts to tech-savvy hiring and retention, CFO business strategy will be centred on continued investment in foundational skills such as auditing, tax, and compliance, as they remain in high demand. Along with a lack of skilled talent, finance leaders are also actively addressing other challenges, such as employee resistance to new technologies and work overload affecting finance departments. CFOs increasingly recognize flexible, scalable talent from outsourced finance teams as a way forward to ensure business sustainability.
Instead of struggling with hiring shortages or long recruitment cycles, finance leaders now tap into skilled professionals—analysts, accountants, controllers, and specialists—exactly when they need them. This model provides immediate access to expertise without the fixed costs and overhead of full-time hires.
For CFOs, this means greater agility in scaling operations during peak periods such as year-end close, audits, or significant projects. The rapid growth of GCCs (Global Capability Centers) is a case in point, where cost-effective talent hubs have successfully scaled to value-generating innovation hubs.
On-demand talent, often delivered through outsourcing or managed services, ensures continuity, accuracy, and speed while reducing burnout for internal teams. It’s a cost-efficient way to build a modern finance function that can flex with the business and stay agile and responsive to rapid change. How CFO business strategy accounts for pressing talent needs will significantly affect how a finance professional, and even the entire department, will look in the future.
You can also read: How GCCs Will Redefine Global Finance Operations in 2026
Challenges CFOs Will Continue to Face in 2026
The new year 2026, as expected, is not short of challenges. As CFOs step into the new year to reinvent and architect enterprise growth, we list some potential roadblocks on the horizon.
Increasing regulatory pressure
The year 2025 has been defined by a multitude of disruptive forces across the risk and regulatory landscape, including tax reform debates, tariffs, ESG reporting requirements, and the increasing adoption of digital assets (like Bitcoin or stablecoins), and these are expected to strengthen going forward.. In the new year, CFO business strategies will have to focus on embedding governance frameworks, testing policy scenarios, and putting in place contingency plans for strategic pivots.
AI Adoption Roadmap
Though the AI is here to stay and is set to transform business functions entirely in the coming years, the challenges to successful adoption are also growing rapidly. C-suite caution and apprehensions regarding safety, security, and reliability; hesitation among teams to adopt AI; and the inability to fully optimize AI’s potential are among them. The gap in perceptions regarding state of adoption is clearly seen in the ’32-percentage-point divide between CFOs and their Financial Controllers’ noted in a recent study on mid-market readiness. While 51% of midmarket CFOs feel their finance teams have fully embraced AI—only 19% of finance controllers agree, according to the survey
Data quality and governance will also pose challenges as AI adoption increases across functions, and finance leaders struggle with limited visibility and control. Invisible workflows, threat of misuse and fraud, difficulty in achieving auditability, and employee upskilling are expected headwinds for AI in your CFO business strategy in 2026.
Financial Transparency Requirements
Financial reporting, forecasts, and insights will need to catch up with rising expectations from the board, investors, and regulators. They will demand continuous visibility into cash flow, performance, and risks. Faster business cycles, frenetic competition, capital attraction, informed investment, and strategic planning are driving demand for improved financial data, analytics, and reporting. The need for real-time financial transparency requires finance teams to modernize their data infrastructure, automate routine processes, and adopt tools that integrate and analyze financial information in real time. The 2026 CFO business strategy must build a finance function that can sense, analyze, and act in real time.
Conclusion
As 2026 rolls in, CFOs prepare to welcome fresh opportunities from automation, global talent optimization, and growing strategic influence across business. But challenges from regulatory and reporting requirements, geopolitical rifts, and uncertainty regarding AI adoption persist. Finance leaders who build robust, flexible plans geared for rapid strategic shifts will be best positioned to lead their organizations with confidence in the year ahead.
FAQs
1. What are the top strategic priorities for CFOs in 2026?
In 2026, CFOs typically prioritize profitable growth, cash and liquidity optimization, digital transformation of finance, risk management, and building a future-ready finance workforce.​
2. How can CFOs use AI and automation to strengthen business strategy?
CFOs can deploy AI for predictive forecasting, anomaly detection, working capital optimization, and touchless transaction processing, freeing teams to focus on strategic analysis.​
3. What major risks should CFOs plan for in 2026?
Key risks include macroeconomic volatility, cybersecurity threats, supply chain disruption, regulatory changes, and data quality issues that can undermine decision-making.​
4. Where does outsourcing or managed services fit into the CFO’s 2026 agenda?
Many CFOs use outsourcing and shared services for transactional finance, analytics support, and specialized compliance work to control costs and access niche expertise.​
5.How can CFOs align finance strategy with ESG and stakeholder expectations?
CFOs can integrate ESG metrics into planning, reporting, and capital allocation, ensuring that sustainability, governance, and risk considerations support long-term value creation.
Raajiv Sachdeva
