Artificial intelligence was certainly top of mind for chief financial officers this year. AI-enabled transformation and ROI are key topics of discussion among CFOs, their boards, the broader C-suite, and other stakeholders.
As 2025 draws to a close, it’s time for predictions about what’s to come in the new year. Fortune asked more than a dozen CFOs of prominent companies: How do you think AI will continue to shape finance in 2026?
The finance chiefs broadly expect AI, including agentic AI, to shift from experimentation to proven, enterprise-wide impact, transforming the finance function. At the same time, they stress that success will depend on factors such as strong governance, clean and trusted data, modernized architectures, and human judgment. Overall, they frame AI less as a mere efficiency tool and more as a catalyst to reinvent finance as a proactive, strategic driver of the business.
Below are CFOs’ predictions for 2026:
Gina Mastantuono, president and CFO, ServiceNow: “In 2026, AI will be judged less on promise and more on proof. Enterprises will continue to expect measurable gains in speed, resilience, and decision quality, not pilots and prototypes. The real shift will be enterprise-wide, with AI embedded into how companies plan and allocate capital, operate, serve customers, and manage risk. That level of impact requires trusted data, clear accountability, and leaders willing to redesign how decisions get made. AI will not replace human experience or judgment, but it will quickly expose where it’s missing and reward organizations that connect vision to AI-powered execution at scale.”
