Just a Quarter of CFOs Are Using the Latest Technology

Although CFOs worldwide have been happy to sign off cheques investing in digitisation, they are more circumspect when it comes to using technology themselves.

A total of 98% of chief finance officers surveyed in the latest McKinsey CFO Pulse survey say they have invested in digital technology elsewhere in their business, but just 25% or less of CFOs have automated or digitised their own processes.

Not that they are unwilling. 

According to McKinsey, CFOs are nearly unanimous in implementing tech automation within their finance teams.  

Just under half (41%) of CFOs have automated up to a quarter of their solely finance function, 24% have automated between 26% and 50% of their function, and one third (33%) have automated between 51% and 75%. 

Only 1% have automated more than three quarters of their finance processes, and the majority of that digitisation and automation has been done recently.

McKinsey surveyed finance chiefs in 26 countries for its latest snapshot of CFO sentiment, with nearly half of the 126 CFOs surveyed working for companies headquarters in the US.  

Out of all respondents, nearly eight out of ten CFOs said they have automated 25% more of their finance processes within the past 12 months.

As to why finance chiefs aren’t automating faster, 70% of CFOs blame their already demanding workload, while over two thirds say lack of relevant capabilities within their finance teams and 62% cite a lack of money to invest in digital finance tools.

What CFOs like about generative AI

As for those finance chiefs who are already using generative AI, 71% say they have seen it improve employee productivity, 54% use tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini to make decisions when it comes to data, and 48% use machine-generated insights. This enthusiasm for generative Al will only increase over the next five years, agreed CFOs. 

So, what is causing the slow takeup of technology which CFOs agree is transforming how they handle data?

“I think the biggest challenge and roadblock is, honestly, talent,” Ankur Agrawal, a partner in McKinsey’s New York office and co-author of the report, told Fortune.

More than finding themselves limited by infrastructure, tools and data, CFOs say the main hurdle to generative AI adoption is finding finance executives who really understand how to deploy and use this advanced technology, said Agrawal.

CFOs getting more hands-on with technology

Meanwhile, a recent Censuswide survey of 1,500 finance chiefs and chief information officers throughout EMEA found that CFOs are getting more hands-on when it comes to technology investments.

Fifty-eight per cent of CFOs surveyed said they decide how much will be invested in technology, with 56% saying they set both IT project timing and monitoring expected business results.

Not that they’re especially happy with what they get for their money. 

Only 19% of CFOs in the EMEA region are happy with the impact technology investments make on their business, with ERP upgrades or migrations faring the worst with only 24% getting a thumbs-up. Spending money on cybersecurity had the best ROI, according to those surveyed. 

Top priorities for CFOs in 2024

CFOs cite enhancing the overall value of their organisation and managing performance metrics (KPIs) as their top priority - just as they did in the last McKinsey survey one year ago. 

But this year’s survey suggests they have also lifted their eyes to the horizon. 

Fifty-five per cent of CFOs now say that long-term planning and resource allocation is also a top priority for them, compared with 30% a year ago. 

And 60% of CFOs cite strategic planning as a top priority compared with 38% last year.

The list of issues that CFOs need to address though make for depressing reading: supply chain disruptions, weak demand, geopolitics, and also technology disruption. 

Agrawal told Fortune: “I think CFOs continue to deal with a lot on their plate. So in many ways, this survey is consistent with the expanding challenge of the CFO role.”

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