Across the globe, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are now the highest-paid members of the C-suite. 2024 research1 from BlackLine shows more than three-quarters of CFOs received a pay increase in the past year, and 83% expect further remuneration rises. From outside the tent, the role has never looked more rewarding. From the inside, higher salaries reflect mounting pressure to diversify. CFOs today lead on external communications, talent management, value optimisation and, critically, digital transformation. They are squeezed between CEOs demanding innovation and teams who need stewarding as automation rapidly reshapes historical F&A processes.
As legacy processes collide with evolving technologies, many teams are exhibiting skills gaps that threaten the competitiveness, resilience, and cohesion essential to modern businesses. Although AI and automation is already the central pillar of the F&A arena, accountants are still qualifying as accountants instead of tech fluent finance operators. As automation continues to shape the F&A landscape, strong tech leadership will be the difference between a business that relies on AI and one that masters it for strategic value.
The expanding role of the CFO
Four decades ago, F&A executives switched from labouring over the general ledger book to shortcutting and auto-filling through spreadsheets. Today, AI automation frees financial leaders from the traditional tasks of account reconciliations, expenses categorisation, transaction matching, and more. But this newfound freedom is not without responsibility. BlackLine’s latest research shows over a third of senior leaders anticipate CFOs becoming even more involved in operations, talent planning, and external communication.
In the not-so-distant past, the certainty of reliable balances tidied into neat, formatted spreadsheets was a staple of the everyday. Now, the role of CFO demands the agility to foresee and solve problems in legal meetings, client discussions, cybersecurity strategy, and more. Meeting this challenge depends on one core capability: technology. Today, a CFO’s fluency in the latest F&A software, combined with their ability to steward a tech-literate team, is the key to a competitive, cross-functional business.
Technology is the new foundation
Allowing technology to take on mandatory tasks and streamline communication has liberated F&A teams to contribute to high value decisions on investment and strategy across the business. With modern systems now providing accurate forecasting, precise
budgeting, and efficient reporting, future financial leaders can be empowered to innovate and harness future technologies before they influence industry. Organisations have already come to enjoy the efficiency of clean data, integrated systems, and inter-departmental communication that previously led to unfulfilling meetings and frustrating headaches. But automation advancements cannot maximise business competitiveness without a capable team.
The skills gap problem
This capability is currently lacking in some quarters. BlackLine polling shows 31% of CFOs see technology skill gaps as a critical barrier to transformation. Understanding this skill gap is the key to bridging it. In the past year, the concept of the AI apocalypse has infiltrated the workplace psyche. With the rate of technological advancement far outpacing government policy and company regulations, many workers are apprehensive about their ability to employ AI and the possibility of automation replacing their role.
Yet, BlackLine research shows 31% of CFOs were worried about finding and retaining new talent, polling above concerns about AI risk to job security. The study also found that 37% of CFOs felt a strong need for technology expertise among future F&A leaders, surpassing even traditional financial skills (35%). The takeaway: financial leaders aren’t looking to replace teams with AI technology, rather, to liberate them from the restraints of some traditional financial practices. CFOs must push their organisations to invest in constant upskilling and communicate honestly if they want to see F&A teams work cross-functionally and competitively.
Closing the gap
It is evident that CFOs must prioritise technology on an organisational and individual level. However cross-functional the CFO role becomes, the AI wave that is transforming the business landscape in all sectors demands a prioritisation of technological fluency and digital strategy. To lead F&A teams into the dawn of the new digital era, CFOs must be tech leaders before anything else.
Once structures for continuous upskilling are in place, leaders must communicate to assuage job replacement fears that cause employee disengagement from new technologies. Where CFOs are finding a lack of tech fluency in the candidate pool, expressing this need across industry pre-hire channels and providing opportunities for future F&A leaders will also be crucial. Ultimately, the BlackLine research is clear: while automation may take precedence over traditional processes, people remain the priority.
But people need leadership and the future of F&A belongs to CFOs who lead teams to harness technology, not fear it.
