AI Adoption Rates in FIs Will See Significant Increases Over Next Two Years

By W.B. King

According to a recent Pigment survey, despite broad excitement and optimism, most companies are still two to three years away from being able to truly leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools and platforms.

For its annual Insights from the Office of the CFO, data was collected from 2,500 full-time finance leaders based in the U.S., the UK, France, and Germany. With offices in Paris, London, Toronto and New York City, Pigment offers an enterprise-grade business planning platform, including its Pigment AI.

“Finance leaders see collaboration, decision-making speed, and raw productivity as the main potential benefits for AI - no big surprises here,” the report said.

“To drill down into the data - directors and above place greater emphasis on improving the bottom line (28%) compared to managers (19%), which aligns with their strategic focus and role responsibilities,” the report continued. “While it’s a key value add for all, improved decision-making accuracy is also more critical for leaders (29%) than for managers (22%), potentially reflecting their responsibility for higher stakes decisions that have a wider business impact.”

Democratizing Access to Insights

Report author and Pigment Head of Strategy and Interim CFO Jay Peir added: “These value propositions line up with my own personal experience with AI: it can amplify the impact of every team member, accelerating tasks for technical users while democratizing access to insights for those that are less technical.”

The survey asked respondents: Would you consider input from AI in making a business decision or recommendation?

“We saw high overall agreement with this sentiment (72%, up from 68% last year) which reflects increasing confidence in AI as a technology that can enhance decision-making. We saw lower agreement among businesses of 15,000 or more (60%), which may be a symptom of lower confidence in their data management capabilities compared to smaller businesses.”

Pier added that respondents from large businesses consistently scored lower on trust, optimism, and perceived benefits of AI, with agreement rates often trailing 10–20% behind other groups. “This perhaps reflects the challenges of scaling AI solutions in large, complex environments where change is often harder and takes longer to implement.”

The survey next asked: “Which of the following do you believe are the biggest barriers to maximizing AI value in your organization?” The top five responses in order were:

• Security concerns

• Difficulty integrating AI into existing systems

• Data quality issue

• Trust in the data

• Insufficient strategic vision for how AI should be utilized within the finance function

“Respondents were split on this question, with only razor-thin margins separating the results. The key takeaway is that while enthusiasm is high, significant effort is still needed to overcome these challenges,” the survey noted.

Last year, those polled were asked: Have you avoided using AI solutions at work out of concern for how your company’s data is used? Last year, 53% agreed. This year the number increased by seven points to 60%.

“Concern among leaders is even higher (68%), perhaps because they’re more aware of the risks associated with AI including data, privacy, security, compliance, and ethical use,” the report found. “Given how ubiquitous AI is becoming in our personal lives, there is a shadow IT risk that leaders should be aware of. We all need to be working on governance around AI, because people are going to use it, with or without IT approval.”

Determining AI Investment Value

Among AI use cases and action items are retraining staff, with 82% already implemented or planning to implement retraining initiatives. “The majority of respondents have either implemented (36%) or plan to implement (46%) higher budgets for IT infrastructure as part of their AI strategy - but this number reduces as you move up in terms of company size,” the report found.

When those polled were asked: “When, if ever, do you expect your organization to be fully equipped to maximize the value from AI investments?” Survey responses indicated that companies aren’t ready yet, but they’re well on their way.

“Two to three years seems to be the sweet spot where most think they’ll be aiming for (54%). Only 13% think they’ll be ready within a year. There does seem to be a disconnect between levels of management: managers are less optimistic about the 2–3-year timeline (46%) compared to directors and above (58%),” the report continued. “It’s probably time for some honest conversations about the barriers that might exist on a more micro level.”