Chief financial officers are facing growing pressure to deploy AI quickly while ensuring that governance, cost controls and risk management keep pace, according to Deloitte’s Q2 2026 CFO Signals survey. (PR Newswire)
The survey found that 93% of CFOs said their organisations are already using AI across key operations, while 96% expressed confidence in their company’s AI governance framework. However, the rapid expansion of AI is also creating significant governance challenges. (PR Newswire)
The biggest challenge, cited by 59% of CFOs, is balancing business pressure to deploy AI rapidly with the need to manage potential risks. Another 51% identified a lack of governance authority, while 43% reported insufficient visibility into the AI tools being used across their organisations. (PR Newswire)
Cost management is emerging as another major concern. Nearly 46% of CFOs cited uncertainty or lack of transparency around AI-related costs as their biggest internal concern. Externally, 43% were most concerned about litigation arising from the use of protected or private content, while 41% highlighted cybersecurity risks and 36% pointed to regulatory complexity. (PR Newswire)
AI is already being deployed across several finance functions. Around 51% of respondents said their finance teams use AI for operational productivity tasks, including meeting transcripts, email drafting and administrative activities. Another 44% use AI for financial planning and budgeting, while 41% use it to analyse financial data. (PR Newswire)
The survey also indicates that CFOs are becoming more directly involved in AI governance. 19% of respondents said they have the greatest responsibility for AI governance within their organisations, placing CFOs behind CIOs and CISOs but ahead of CEOs, boards and chief risk officers in reported governance responsibility. (PR Newswire)
Deloitte’s findings highlight how quickly AI has shifted from experimentation to mainstream enterprise use. In the first quarter of 2024, only 66% of CFOs said their companies were either experimenting with generative AI or simply discussing it. By 2026, that figure had moved to 93% reporting AI use across multiple operational areas. (PR Newswire)
The Q2 2026 survey covered 200 North American CFOs at companies with annual revenues of at least US$1 billion, with responses collected between May 22 and June 7, 2026. (PR Newswire)
For banks, insurers and other financial institutions, the findings reinforce the need to treat AI adoption as both a technology initiative and an enterprise risk-management issue. Governance frameworks will increasingly need to address model oversight, cybersecurity, data privacy, legal exposure, cost accountability and transparency around how AI tools are being used across the organisation.
