Facing cost pressures, CFOs turn to AI and automation

Savings could be around the corner for CFOs who invest more of their budgets in technology upgrades, the results of a new survey suggest.

Deloitte’s Q1 2026 North American CFO Signals survey identified cost management as the top internal risk facing 200 CFOs polled from organizations with at least $1 billion in annual revenues. The CFOs voted for “automation or technology upgrades” as the lever that has proved to be most effective for controlling costs.

Along the same lines, a survey-high 49% reported that pressure to invest in new technologies such as the cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) was a factor driving their organization’s efforts to manage costs, just ahead of shrinking profit margins (48%).

The CFOs were asked to select up to three technologies most important to enabling cost management. Three on the list got votes from more than 40% of the CFOs: cloud-based planning, budgeting, and forecasting at 43%; data analytics tools at 43%; and AI (not including agentic AI) at 40%. The other three got less than 30%: agentic AI (20%), management reporting tools (27%), and ERP systems (28%).

Other observations from the quarterly survey:

• The CFOs were asked to select up to three choices from a list of options on the survey questions. Fifty-three percent selected automation/technology upgrades as the most proven for controlling costs, followed by increased productivity efforts or investments at 43%. The report noted that workforce reductions wasn’t listed as a choice.

• Cost management moved up, from third in the survey in the fourth quarter of 2025, to first among internal risks at 52%, just ahead of efficiency/productivity and talent (hiring/retention or skills gap), each at 48%.

• Supply chain disruption was the top external risk (52%), just ahead of inflation (51%), and significantly higher than the previous quarter (35%). The survey was conducted in the first two weeks of March, just after the start of the Middle East conflict.

• The top internal challenge to managing costs was siloed departments or autonomous/independent business units (46%), followed by outdated technology and tools (39%).

While the survey revealed the prominent role technology can play in improving the bottom line, another recent survey highlighted the importance of going beyond a financial commitment and creating a plan for good governance of technology.

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Bryan Strickland at Bryan.Strickland@aicpa-cima.com.