Finance AI spending is stuck on efficiency gains, Gartner says

Dive Brief:

• Nearly half (45%) of finance leaders say their department’s artificial intelligence investments are primarily aimed at productivity, while just one in five say the main focus is improving decision quality, according to Gartner survey findings released Monday.
• The findings suggest that many finance organizations are still in the early stages of AI deployment, despite facing growing pressure to unlock greater value from the technology.
• Many CFOs are prioritizing efficiency use cases, even as “boards place greater emphasis on investments that drive growth, improve decision-making and deliver competitive advantage,” Shankar Keshav, principal analyst in Gartner’s finance practice, said in a press release.

Dive Insight:

The findings highlight a broader challenge facing CFOs as boards and investors increasingly scrutinize whether AI spending is translating into measurable business value.

Most (87%) of finance leaders feel pressured to tie AI spending to business outcomes within the next year, but only 22% have already achieved that goal, according to a study released last month by Cloudzero, which describes itself as an AI ROI company. Cloudzero’s survey also found that 66% of boards are conditioning additional AI funding on proof of return.

The pressure extends beyond corporate boardrooms. In a study released in May, Janus Henderson Investors found that nine out of 10 investors have at least some concerns about AI, with 28% citing fears that it may not live up to expectations. Two-thirds of investors said they were worried about a potential AI bubble or market correction in the near term.

Corporate finance in particular is increasingly viewed as a proving ground for AI’s impact.

While finance departments are delivering real efficiency gains from AI, boards increasingly expect forward-looking business outcomes, according to Gartner.

“The question is no longer whether individual AI initiatives are working but whether overall finance AI portfolios are too heavily weighted toward productivity to be able to meet the broader value boards now expect,” Gartner said in the report.

Only 17% of CFOs report significant or transformational value from productivity-focused investments, compared with 31% for decision-quality initiatives, the report said. Organizations that invest heavily in upend investments — ones that create new value propositions, products or markets — are more than twice as likely to report “high realized value,” Gartner said.

While efficiency-focused use cases can deliver near-term gains, the impact on the business may plateau once a process becomes faster or requires less manual effort, according to the global research and advisory firm.

“This imbalance can lead to a perception gap, where finance leaders report progress on AI adoption, but boards see limited strategic impact,” Keshav said in the release. “As a result, even well-executed AI initiatives may fall short of expectations when they fail to address the outcomes most valued at the enterprise level.”

Gartner surveyed over 200 finance executives globally in February and March.