The survey of 270 CFOs reveals that while AI is now standard in the finance office, confidence in the technology remains low. Only 5% of finance leaders trust AI to produce board-ready reports without human intervention, and a mere 4% rely on it for month-end closes. This skepticism stems primarily from a lack of auditability, with 75% of respondents citing it as their main barrier to full adoption. Furthermore, 65% of executives report frustration with AI tools providing confident, yet factually incorrect, answers derived from faulty data.

Despite these operational hurdles, the anticipated wave of AI-driven layoffs has failed to materialize. Instead, 60% of CFOs are shifting staff toward higher-value strategic work, with only 3% of organizations actively reducing headcount due to automation. Moving forward, 53% of finance leaders plan to expand their AI licenses over the next year, even as 32% report that their AI budgets have already been exceeded by at least 10%. Datarails CEO Didi Gurfinkel notes that the focus has shifted from whether to use AI to determining how to most effectively verify its output.