New research from OneStream finds that while 75% of CFOs lead Enterprise AI strategy, only one in three have successfully deployed AI at Scale. That’s among the findings of a new study examining how CFOs are prioritizing, adopting and investing in AI. The study, which polled 350+ full-time CFOs across the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, reveals that CFOs are facing mounting pressure from boards and investors to turn AI from promise into performance, something many of them have considerable difficulty accomplishing.
OneStream is an enterprise finance management platform that modernizes the Office of the CFO by unifying core finance and operational functions – including financial close, consolidation, reporting, planning and forecasting.
“Boards and CEOs are looking to CFOs to lead the enterprise through the AI era,” said Tom Shea, CEO and President at OneStream. “Finance sits at the intersection of data and decision-making, positioning CFOs as the natural architects of AI-driven performance. The challenge now is how to break through the AI hype so CFOs can build a trusted, secure AI strategy that solves real pain points across the business.”
Key findings from the study include surging AI investment. AI spending is set to soar in 2026 as CFOs step into a central role in shaping enterprise AI strategy. 83% of CFOs expect AI investment to rise across their organizations next year – and 80% anticipate increased spending specifically within finance.
These growth expectations are widespread: nearly four in five (78%) forecast budget increases of up to 50% across the organization, while one in five (22%) expect more than a 50% rise. Finance teams mirror this trajectory as 79% of CFOs predict that their finance team will increase their 2026 AI investments by up to 50%, and 21% expect increases of more than 50%.
The study finds CFOs increasingly steering this agenda. Three out of four CFOs (75%) say they now lead their organization’s AI strategy – compared to just 42% of CTOs/CIOs, 40% of Chief Data/AI Officers and just 27% of CEOs. Yet confidence often outpaces readiness: while 67% of CFOs believe their AI strategy is ahead of the curve, only 35% report an excellent understanding of AI, and just one in three (33%) say they’ve successfully deployed AI at scale.
At the same time, CFOs aren’t working in silos. AI is driving deeper collaboration across the C-suite, with half of CFOs (50%) reporting that their relationship with the CTO/CIO is becoming more strategic and a third (33%) describing it as more collaborative. This alignment is shaping long-term AI priorities and value. Looking ahead, 57% of CFOs anticipate greater cross-functional collaboration, including tighter integration with IT, operations, and data science teams, as AI adoption within finance accelerates.
Boards are largely united on AI, while CFOs remain divided on how to measure its value. Fifty-four percent of boards strongly support AI and another 40% are cautiously optimistic. Whether cautious or confident, boards agree that ROI is important.
Meanwhile, the pressure is steady as nearly all (97%) CFOs say their boards expect a regular readout on AI investment and progress, with a focus on cost savings (66%), ROI (65%) and productivity gains (63%) as top reported metrics. CFOs, however, see a more complicated picture.
Ninety-three percent of CFOs reported that their organization understands the ROI of their current AI investments, but they are split on their own view of the value of AI investments. Encouragingly, AI is already delivering early wins. More than half of CFOs (56%) report real productivity gains from AI deployments. But uncertainty lingers as 32% of CFOs express concerns about ROI uncertainty and 53% cite cost optimization as a future focus.
Despite the momentum, CFOs are still navigating the path to enterprise-wide scale. The current application of AI is still fragmented – concentrated in core areas such as financial close (66%), forecasting and planning (62%), compliance (54%), and reporting (45%).
Few have advanced beyond these foundational use cases: 49% say they are experimenting with generative AI, while 33% are focused on more advanced cognitive use cases. This signals a lack of broad, end-to-end application of AI across the finance workflow.
In the near term, most finance teams are prioritizing foundational use cases over the next 12-24 months: financial close and consolidation (62%), forecasting and planning (58%), and risk and compliance (53%). While these applications are driving measurable efficiency gains, they indicate incremental – not yet transformational – adoption.
Longer-term ambitions are more strategic. More than half (61%) of CFOs plan to apply AI to advanced decision-making tools for scenario modeling and financial forecasting – showing a clear vision for the future, yet limited AI talent, inconsistent data quality, and integration challenges continue to slow progress, leaving CFOs striving to connect rising budgets with measurable business outcomes.
OneStream has launched a monthly video series to help CFOs navigate AI applications for Finance. To learn more about the Finance AI research, and to watch the Finance AI Academy, visit www.onestream.com/finance-ai-academy.
The research was conducted online in the U.S., the U.K, and Australia by The Harris Poll on behalf of Highwire PR among 353 adults aged 25 years or older, who are employed full-time in a CFO role at a business with 100+ employees and $50m+ revenue, and who are adopting or interested in adopting AI at their firm. The survey was conducted between the 18th and 26th of August 2025.
Data are weighted where necessary by employee-size categories to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ± 6.1 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.
With over 1,600 customers, including 17% of the Fortune 500, a strong ecosystem of go-to-market, implementation, and development partners and over 1,500 employees, our vision is to be the operating system for modern Finance. To learn more, visit onestream.com.