CFO ambition-action gap threatens wealth firm growth, EY report finds
More revealing is where AI is actually being deployed versus where the opportunity lies. CFOs are more likely to use AI defensively for fraud detection, risk assessment, and financial forecasting, than offensively. Less than half have meaningfully adopted AI for growth forecasting, dynamic pricing, or strategic data analysis, despite acknowledging the potential in each area.
The barriers are familiar: 61 per cent cite data quality and bias as the primary obstacle, followed by unclear long-term benefits (51 per cent) and lack of internal skills and capacity (50 per cent). With 80 per cent of CFOs expecting AI-enabled business models to feature significantly within their organisations within the next 12 months, the gap between intention and capability is closing fast — but it is not closed yet.
Transformation fatigue is real
Perhaps the most telling statistic in the entire report: only 12 per cent of CFOs say that their transformation outcomes over the past two years exceeded expectations. Forty per cent report that progress was slow or limited.
The EY research found that mindset, not technology or budget, is the primary differentiator between those who succeed and those who do not. Among the 12 per cent whose transformations succeeded, 42 per cent described their teams as highly adaptable. Among CFOs with less adaptable teams, only three per cent reported exceeding expectations.
Yet just 11 per cent of CFOs describe their teams as highly adaptable today, and only 13 per cent say their teams are proactive learners. Ten per cent express high confidence in working with new technology.
