Finance under pressure: how leading teams are navigating uncertainty

What finance leaders are facing in 2026

Global finance teams are navigating an era of compounding disruption, from supply chain volatility and shifting tariff regimes to rapid AI adoption and fragmented data environments. This report, produced in partnership with Hanover Research, distills the pressures and priorities shaping the modern Office of the CFO.

Whether your team is early in its AI journey or managing complex multi-vendor data ecosystems, this research gives you the benchmark data and strategic guidance to move forward with confidence.

Key Findings

External pressures are forcing a new efficiency mandate

• Supply chain disruption (31%) and global tariffs (30%) top the list of external pressures compelling finance teams to find new ways to increase efficiency.

• Finance leaders are prioritizing real-time forecasting and faster scenario analysis to stay ahead of market swings driven by interest rates, cloud migration pressure, and economic disruption.

AI delivers fast ROI — but security and ethics concerns remain real

• 68% of finance teams are using AI at a moderate to very high level, with 61% achieving positive ROI within 12 months, primarily through time savings on daily tasks (71%).

• Nearly half of respondents (49%) flag data security as a top concern, alongside ethics (39%) and data quality (37%), underscoring the need for finance-specific AI tools with built-in safeguards.

Multi-vendor data sprawl is undermining financial accuracy

• 93% of finance leaders report that poor data management is the biggest challenge to financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and compliance.

• With 82% of teams using four or more software tools, often from multiple vendors, integration complexity and data inconsistency create critical vulnerabilities in the close and planning cycles.

FROM THE RESEARCH

"With uncertainty hovering over finance leaders daily, they have difficulty managing all the possible scenarios that could play out. Forward-thinking leaders are finding relief by using AI and automation to manage that uncertainty."

— Martin Baker, Principal Product Marketing Manager, insightsoftware