GenAI Gains Strategic Importance Among CFOs as Workforce Needs Change

The ranks of CFOs who consider generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as “very” or “extremely” important to their enterprises have about doubled across use cases, according to the upcoming CAIO report from PYMNTS Intelligence.

These high-impact companies are also pulling away from the pack when it comes to deploying GenAI effectively in their businesses. While most companies use GenAI to generate content, high-impact firms tend to use it for more strategic and advanced functions while lower-impact firms mainly are using the technology for entry-level tasks.

These are among the findings of the report, based on interviews with 60 CFOs at U.S. firms with over $1 billion in annual revenue.

Among high-impact companies, the top three use cases for GenAI are innovating of products and services; generating real-time, automated responses to customer queries; and creating contextualized emails or recommendations. Each were cited by 87.5% of CFOs.

The importance of these three use cases have nearly or more than doubled from a year ago, according to the CFOs surveyed.

Among medium- and low-impact companies — those in which GenAI still remains in early to mid-stage deployment or relegated to entry-level tasks — CFOs generally see smaller gains or even declines in the impact of GenAI on their businesses, year-over-year.

Top use cases in these two groups are:

Medium-impact companies: answering customer queries in real time, writing emails and recommendations, and a tie between identifying fraud, errors and consistencies and helping customers and employees access data.

Low-impact firms: answering customer queries in real time, helping workers and employees access data, and run an automated workflow management system.

When looking at all companies regardless of GenAI’s impact, the top use case for the technology is financial planning and analysis, with 90% of CFOs saying it is highly important compared with 46.7% saying the same thing a year ago. In cost management, the percentages are 85% vs. 40%; in treasury management, it is 58.3% compared with 25%.

The report found that GenAI is being adopted for a wide array of tasks across enterprises. Its use in spotting fraud and errors is up 31% since March 2024, and use for product and service innovation has risen by 21% in the same time frame.

GenAI Budget Shrinks

But despite a sharp increase in the use and perceived importance of GenAI across large U.S. enterprises, investment growth in GenAI is slowing across industries. Only 27% of CFOs say their companies are raising their GenAI budgets this year — down from 53% in 2024.

The two trends underscore a corporate balancing act: While GenAI is beneficial to business, an uncertain macroeconomic environment amid two global wars is making companies more fiscally cautious.

The willingness to expand AI investment also varied depending on perceived ROI. Among firms that reported very positive ROI from GenAI, 50% planned to boost their budgets, down from 68.8% a year ago.

In contrast, only 16.7% of those with negligible ROI from GenAI expected to do the same, down from 50% in 2024. Among those that have seen “somewhat positive” ROI, 22.2% plan to spend more on GenAI, down from 47% last year.

Automation level also played a key role. One-third of highly automated enterprises — those with low reliance on human operators — planned to raise GenAI spending. Only 21% of firms in low-automation environments intended to do so.

While investment levels are cooling, the demand for employees skilled in AI is surging. Every CFO surveyed said the implementation of GenAI has increased their company’s need for more analytically skilled workers. The 100% showing compares to 58.3% saying the same last year.

In addition, 96.7% said the mix of skills needed across their organizations has changed in the GenAI era. They need more skilled workers and fewer entry-level employees: 83.3% of CFOs said they need a larger tech or IT support team, up from 58.1% in 2024.

Meanwhile, 61.7% of CFOs said they need fewer lower-skilled workers, compared to 64.3% in 2024. Also, 45% said they don’t need to hire as many people in certain parts of the business, up from 40% a year ago.

Overall, the findings point to a recognition among CFOs that GenAI is a strategic imperative instead of a fad. However, they still face constraints in budgeting as macroeconomic and geopolitical issues emerge.

At the same time, CFOs have to carefully calibrate their labor needs as they pivot from lower-skilled, entry-level workers to AI talent for their tech or IT support teams — with ROI squarely in the crosshairs.

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