Finance and accounting teams are running on fumes—and the tank is almost empty.

The numbers are brutal:

• Up to 3.5 million finance professionals are missing from the global workforce.
   
• 75% of CPAs will retire within 15 years.
   
• Fewer students are studying accounting than at any point in the last decade and a half.
   
• 80% of companies can’t recruit or retain the talent they need.
   

This isn’t just some “staffing issue". It’s an existential threat to the Office of the CFO.

Compliance failures, delayed closes, inaccurate forecasts—these aren’t just costly. They’re career-ending. For CFOs and CEOs alike.

The pressure is unsustainable. Burnout is rampant. And the traditional fix—throwing more people at the problem—is no longer an option.

But there is good news.

The AI revolution is not coming. It’s here. And it’s ready to do what headcount can’t:

Deliver 40–50% productivity gains to overburdened finance teams—today.

Finance, in its current form, is unsustainable

In a tight labor market, your finance and accounting talent has more leverage to find an organization that gives them the proper tools and support to succeed. The prospect of working nights and weekends on antiquated manual processes and spreadsheets doesn’t look so appealing when a competing role offers modern tools and automation that enables ample time for strategic effort and cognitive, creative thinking.

As more corporate finance and accounting professionals take on elevated, tech-forward roles, promoting the profession as appealing to young undergraduates will be easier. Redefining the function as the analytical engine of the business—and empowering teams with modern cloud tools, automation, and AI—will make it appealing to a new generation of digital-native professionals. But, it will take years to turn Gen Z finance students’ eyes away from investment banking career goals.

So, what can CFOs do today? Modernize finance and accounting approaches, systematize processes to streamline business-wide collaboration, automate away manual tasks, and elevate these roles from backward-looking bean counters to forward-looking business partners.

The fastest track today is through AI and automation. These are not buzzwords—they’re now essential ingredients for modern financial performance management that power financial processes while driving accuracy, speed, and productivity. Top talent craves innovation, collaboration, and smart technology that helps them move faster and make better decisions alongside the business. For CFOs, the question isn’t whether AI has a role in finance—it’s how soon they can harness it to elevate their teams and confidently lead.

A new vision for finance elevated by AI

I talk with CFOs and other business leaders every week to understand the market, their challenges, and their evolving roles. I’m meeting with hundreds more this week at our annual conference, and I expect many conversations to mention the continuing stress faced by finance and accounting professionals. The cause is no mystery, however. How can anyone be happy if they’re slogging through manual processes designed last century and working in outdated, disconnected systems?

CFOs are navigating shrinking labor pools and growing demand for top talent, but the solution isn’t to demand more from overworked teams. That approach only leads to burnout and attrition. Instead, the opportunity is to create a new vision for finance that excites and empowers teams to do their best work.

You can start by rethinking roles to emphasize strategic collaboration, not repetitive tasks. Finance professionals want to make an impact, not just reconcile spreadsheets. By embracing AI, automation, and other modern technology—not to replace people, but to elevate them—CFOs can automate the manual, simplify the complex, and create space for genuine business partnerships.

AI lets you think big, too, by driving dramatic productivity gains that cut process cycles from weeks to minutes, increasing financial transparency and accuracy for every decision-maker across the business, and adding the agility and confidence teams expect—because, outside of finance, they get it from every other enterprise tool they use.

Here’s how modern CFOs I work with are embracing AI-driven innovations:

• Automation. Expecting teams to spend weeks each month on manual close and consolidation, reporting, board decks, and updating dashboards is no longer an option. Those tasks can be automated, freeing FP&A to dig into the numbers, perform more strategic activities, and give the C-suite a better look at the business, risks, and opportunities.
• Collaboration. With more time, finance can partner closely with business leaders to align decisions and drive peak performance. But it’s not just in meetings. Collaboration has to be integrated into work so the numbers and analysis provide the context, conversations happen within daily workflows, and finance and the business can work together using the same information.
• Innovation. If it’s not already, AI must be in every finance and accounting professional’s toolbox. It boosts productivity across the business—analyzing complex scenarios, generating thousands of models, surfacing key insights, and summarizing data instantly—that it’s almost irresponsible not to have AI deployed.

None of this is new. Today, though, it’s expected by top talent (of all ages!), easy to deploy without IT, and growing more powerful by the day.

AI is the engine driving finance’s transformation

A recent Morgan Stanley survey found that 61% of CFOs already view AI as critical to achieving their strategic goals in 2025. Enterprise leaders are not waiting for the AI hype to die down. Instead, they’re making faster decisions, running leaner operations, and delivering measurable improvements to the bottom line. This is no longer about experimentation. It’s about execution.

Finance leaders across industries are putting AI to work—and seeing real results. Rocket Software, a global technology company that helps businesses modernize their IT systems, uses AI to enhance forecasting and automate data analysis within its finance team. By incorporating AI into their processes, Rocket has improved forecast accuracy, reduced the risk of human error, and accelerated planning cycles. These benefits have empowered the finance team to make more confident, data-driven decisions and spend more time on strategic initiatives.

Rocket’s experience is just one example of how quickly AI is transforming finance. The pace of change is undeniable. Just as cloud computing transformed finance a decade ago, turning skeptics into adopters almost overnight, AI is reshaping the competitive landscape even faster. What was once viewed as experimental is now essential.

AI for finance has matured from buzzword into a proven advantage that helps CFOs attract top talent, seize high-value opportunities, and unlock new levels of productivity and profitability. The companies using it are pulling ahead. The ones that aren’t are already behind.

A CFO’s call to action: Lead with AI

Finance can’t thrive on burnout, spreadsheets, and outdated tools. And we’re well past the point of calling AI in finance a bold or futuristic move. In 2025, it’s an expectation.

Your teams need automation, collaboration, and innovation built into their daily work to unlock their full potential and focus on strategic, high-value thinking. These capabilities, powered by AI, not only improve performance but also help you attract and retain top talent.

And if you need another reason—do it for yourself. AI gives you faster insights, better decisions, and stronger results.

Either way, your team wins. Your business wins. And your CEO will be thrilled.