CFOs: Brace for the 2026 AI cliff or leap toward higher ROI

By Q4 2025, AI-supported finance teams will run 3x faster, with no manual work to worry about. We're talking lightning-fast data extraction (227% faster), smarter categorisation, and seamless workflows - all processed in just 3.58 seconds per expense. And yet, 96% of finance leaders are still in 'exploration mode,' meaning only 4% are scaling with AI today. That gap? It's about to become a canyon.

Welcome to what analysts are calling “the 2025 AI cliff.” A steep drop awaits those who don’t move fast, and a major advantage lies ahead for those who do.

Let’s start with the facts. Between now and the end of 2025:

• AI agents will be embedded in 1 out of 3 business software tools (up from just 1% in 2024)
• 15% of day-to-day finance decisions will be made autonomously by AI
• Enterprise developers are all in: 99% are either building or actively exploring AI agent deployment

So, while some finance teams are still debating pilot programs, tech adoption is already surging. By the time 2026 rolls around, AI-first finance operations will be the norm, not the outlier.

What this means for the CFO

The CFO role is evolving fast. Gone are the days when your mandate was limited to financial stewardship and backwards-looking reporting. Today’s finance leader is being pushed into a new mandate: part technology strategist, part AI transformation lead, and very much a driver of value creation.

And while this shift has been building for years, 2025 marks a sharp inflection point. The companies that move now will build AI muscle and strategic advantage. The ones that don’t? They’ll be left playing catch-up in a landscape where the pace of change is only accelerating.

The CFOs delaying AI adoption aren’t just missing out on cool tech; they’re exposing their organisations to long-term strategic risk. Here’s what’s at stake:

• Productivity and accuracy gaps: Teams using AI agents already report up to 50% fewer manual tasks and 20% better forecasting accuracy.
• Operational inefficiency: Manual reconciliation, invoice processing, and reporting cycles become liabilities when peers are automating these in days, not weeks.
• Talent loss: Younger finance professionals expect modern, digital-first workflows. Outdated tools = disengagement and attrition.
• Missed innovation: AI is supercharging strategic planning, cost control, and risk mitigation. Staying manual means falling behind fast.

The clock is ticking… but so is the opportunity

The good news? You don’t need to boil the ocean. Start small. Start smart. Identify high-impact, low-risk areas like:

• Invoice processing and reconciliation
• Expense categorisation and anomaly detection
• Budget variance analysis and forecasting

These are fast wins. But more importantly, they build confidence, capability, and momentum. You don’t need to be a technologist to understand this shift. You just need to be a CFO who’s watching the horizon.

The end of 2025 is coming fast. And the question isn’t whether AI will transform finance. It’s whether you’ll lead that transformation, or be left behind.

A new path forward for finance leaders

The good news? You’re not alone. While many finance teams are still figuring out how to integrate AI into their daily operations, the question for our customers is simply when, with all four of Payhawk’s AI Agents now in early release.

Back in early 2025, we launched our vision of the “AI Office of the CFO,” a new suite of specialised AI agents designed specifically for finance teams. Crucially, these AI agents aren’t a new tool or plugin, instead, they’re built directly into the tools you already rely on, making AI adoption faster, safer, and way more practical.

Our CEO, Hristo Borisov, explains:

Finance leaders know AI will have an impact on their operations, but until now, there hasn't been a clear and practical path forward. We're not just adding AI features — we're creating a new category of purpose-built agents that transform finance operations by autonomously completing critical, time-consuming tasks.

From “busywork” to better work

At Payhawk, our AI Financial Controller Agent is already taking the grunt work off finance teams’ plates — chasing receipts, reviewing expense documents, answering transaction questions — so your team can focus on strategy, analysis, and cross-company collaboration.

And that’s just the start. Our AI Travel Agent, now in early release, takes care of booking policy-compliant flights and hotels while automatically capturing related expenses. Our AI Procurement Agent, also in early release, turns messy purchase requests into a single, streamlined conversation, guiding employees through policies, approvals, and vendor comparisons and replacing days of emails with just a few clicks.

And with our AI Payments Agent in early release too, outgoing payments are executed with accuracy, compliance, and full visibility, removing one of the most time-consuming friction points in finance.

Automation with control baked in

One of the biggest blockers to AI adoption in finance is control, or rather, the fear of losing it.

But at Payhawk, we’ve built our AI agents to fix exactly that. Every action they take happens inside your existing workflows, following the same approval structures, permissions, and audit trails you already have in place.

There is no rogue autonomy, random automation, or hallucination. There are just purpose-built agents who work like real, albeit junior, team members.

Irina Anichshuk, COO & Partnerships at Kolleno, explained in a recent talk at the Digital Accountancy Show, AI is actually here to help:

Think of AI as your junior employee. It can do the admin, but you still need to check its work. Just like Excel didn't take our jobs, AI is here to help, not replace.

AI hype vs. AI help

AI is everywhere in 2025 — and so is the noise. For finance leaders, it’s getting harder to separate real innovation from “vaporware”. Too often, AI for finance means:

• Chatbots that can answer basic questions, but don’t take work off your plate
• Standalone tools that cause more integration and security headaches than they solve

Our CEO, Hristo, describes it as follows: *"Most companies are simply adding AI features to existing products — essentially creating chatbots that can answer questions but can’t truly take work off your team’s plate. " *

What makes us different is that we’ve built these agents on our existing financial infrastructure. They understand your company’s policies, workflows, and permissions, and respect established spend controls.

That distinction matters because, for finance teams, the biggest AI challenge isn’t just automation — it’s gaining productivity without losing control.

Four agents, live and ready for action

You don’t have to wait. All four of Payhawk’s AI Agents — Financial Controller, Travel, Procurement, and Payments — are already available in early release. Each one is designed to take on a specific, time-consuming finance task, from chasing receipts to processing payments. Together, they form the foundation of a smarter, AI-augmented finance function.

Ready to take the first step?

The AI cliff isn’t looming — you’re already there. But with the right strategy (and the right agents on your side), you can skip the panic and start making progress.

Register for our webinar now to explore the solution in more detail and see the AI Agents in action.