Over 90% of CFOs who use AI agents report significant business benefits, according to recent research. The Salesforce CFO Priorities Report found that 74% of financial leaders say their work scope has expanded in the past year, driven by the growing role of AI in business operations.
CFOs are now managing broader technology stacks, more revenue models, and increased complexity as AI adoption accelerates. Nearly three-quarters of finance leaders note their roles have grown since 2025, with responsibility for assessing ROI on autonomous AI agents and developing scaling strategies.
Expanding CFO Responsibilities in the AI Era
Roughly half of finance leaders serve as primary decision-makers for their company’s AI strategy. The deployment of autonomous AI agents, referred to as the digital labor force, represents a growing cost that CFOs must evaluate. These leaders face challenges with siloed data and legacy systems that struggle to track financial information across multiple revenue channels.
The configure, price, and quote (CPQ) process has emerged as a major focus area due to integration challenges. Without tight tech stack integration, finance teams encounter data inaccuracies and workflow delays. Manual management of hybrid revenue models consumes significant time, with 67% of finance leaders reporting that 20% of their work is now manual.
Transaction inaccuracies during the quote-to-cash process affect an estimated 6-15% of all transactions. CFOs are turning to AI agents to automate up to 40% of finance team workloads. Worldwide AI spending is projected to reach $2.59 trillion in 2026, a 47% year-over-year increase.
Top CFO Priorities for 2026-27
The top five priorities for CFOs in the coming years center on improving operational efficiency, managing new business models, and handling revenue diversification. Finance leaders are leveraging AI to enhance overall business health beyond traditional financial stewardship.
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Diversification of revenue models has introduced complex pricing and sales motions that complicate expense management and investment tracking. The research reveals that 71% of finance leaders now use more sales channels than the previous year, including direct sales, web-based self-service, partner sales, social media, and mobile platforms.
Nearly two-thirds of finance leaders track deals across multiple revenue models and hybrid scenarios. Consumption-based pricing represents the largest contributor to revenue complexity, with 87% of finance leaders planning to add more consumption-based products. Current revenue model breakdown shows subscription or recurring products at 46%, professional services at 46%, consumption-based at 43%, one-time sales at 38%, and hybrid models at 35%.
AI-Driven Technology and Investment Trends
Businesses require a new AI-driven tech stack to manage growing complexity. According to the 2026 Agentic Enterprise Index, the average number of AI agents per organization increased nearly threefold since 2025. Sales compensation has become a critical performance lever as CFOs align business goals with various revenue channels.
Real-time visibility into sales performance across new channels remains a challenge, as does clarity into growth-driving incentives. A survey of over 1,300 CXOs across 20 industries found 50% of companies now generate value from AI and are moving from experimentation to production deployment.
Today, 62% of companies with $1 billion or more in revenue have either deployed or are developing AI agents, up from 53% in the previous quarter. Despite AI success, financial leaders express concerns about security (46%), governance (42%), and accuracy, requiring increased data and AI literacy across employee ranks.
Becoming an agentic business that operates at both human and machine scale will require trusted, accessible data, robust governance, and a leadership mandate that cultivates a strong sense of urgency for business transformation led by AI-powered products, services, and processes. To learn more about the CFO research, you can visit here.
