Three forces are hitting finance at the same time, and each makes the others harder. Here’s why CFOs who build capability alongside AI will come out ahead.
Julie Colwell
Principal Strategist
Workday
The CFO role has changed faster than the people, pipelines, and systems built to support it. Finance leaders have gone from keepers of the books to partners in enterprise strategy.
Three forces are driving that shift at once:
Tariffs that rewrite cost assumptions on short notice
Talent pipeline that is shrinking while the job expands
AI tools arriving faster than most teams can absorb them
Together, each makes the others harder. Volatility raises demand for fast, skilled analysis. A leaner bench limits how much a team can deliver. And, pressure to close the gap pushes organizations toward automation before the foundation is ready.
It begs the question: what should CFOs prioritize first? The answer starts with capability. Technology works best when it extends skilled judgment, and it becomes a liability when it’s asked to stand in for it.
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Tariffs have evolved from a news headline to a top CFO challenge heading into 2026. The rules keep changing, too. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed under emergency powers earlier this year, a new global tariff took effect within hours and was raised again the next day.
On the surface, executives sound prepared. In Forvis Mazars’ C-Suite Barometer, 95% of U.S. executives said they were confident managing tariff-driven costs. Underneath, the picture is less settled:
The workforce is absorbing the shock. 52% of finance executives said the volatility is impacting their workforce.
Execution confidence is low. In KPMG’s 2026 tariff survey, half of leaders reported low confidence in executing their investment plans or strategy.
Technology works best when it extends skilled judgment, and it becomes a liability when it’s asked to stand in for it.
Confidence in absorbing a cost depends on having people who can model it, re-model it when the rules change, and explain the impact to the board. That capacity is what’s under the most strain.
Managing tariffs well depends on detailed exposure analysis and continuous scenario planning. Each new tariff cycle tests that capability and exposes the same gaps in data, process, and skills. It also demands faster, more frequent modeling and pricing decisions, which is the exact kind of work many finance teams are short-staffed and under-skilled to do at speed.
For decades, finance leaders could count on a steady supply of accountants and analysts to absorb new demands. That buffer is eroding.
The AICPA’s (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) 2025 Trends data shows bachelor’s degree completions in accounting fell 10.3% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, then another 3.3% the following year. New CPA exam candidates dropped from 42,626 in 2023 to 28,082 in 2024. Enrollment has begun to recover, but today’s students won’t be seasoned controllers for years, and a large generation of CPAs is nearing retirement. This is a structural shortage.
Meanwhile, job requirements keep expanding. According to Gartner research on modern finance operations, CFOs now own or co-own enterprise data, risk management, corporate strategy, enterprise AI, and M&A. Many also lead digital transformation and sustainability reporting. The pipeline was built to fill a much smaller role.
In a Gartner survey of 100 CFOs conducted in early 2026, building AI talent in finance and responding to unpredictable market conditions ranked as the two most challenging priorities for the next six months.
With fewer experienced people and more responsibility, technology looks like the obvious solution. But it comes with its own challenges.
AI at work is now mainstream, and it’s reshaping the jobs people already have. In Workday’s 2026 Global Workforce Report, demand for basic AI skills like simple prompting fell 25% this year, while demand for hands-on skills like building AI tools and automating workflows rose 51%. Workers are feeling the shift. In Workday’s AI@Work Pulse survey, 62% of daily AI users said they expect AI to make their current skills less valuable, yet 76% expect it to open new career opportunities, and those who build with AI are pulling ahead.
CFOs’ expectations are pragmatic. In the Duke and Federal Reserve survey, finance leaders said they expect AI to raise productivity and improve decision speed and accuracy, without much effect on headcount or measurable cost savings in 2026. AI amplifies the capability a team already has, so the size and skill of that team still matter.
Nearly 40% of the time employees save with AI is lost to reviewing, correcting, and reworking outputs.
A global study of 3,200 employees and leaders, Beyond Productivity: Measuring the Real Value of AI, found that nearly 40% of the time employees save with AI is lost to reviewing, correcting, and reworking outputs. In finance, that rework requires judgment. A misclassified transaction or flawed forecast assumption can travel into a board deck or a pricing decision, and someone has to be responsible for recognizing mistakes. Only 15% of organizations report being well or fully prepared for advanced analytics and AI.
That makes the order of investment critical: capability has to keep pace with technology.
Put the three forces side by side and a pattern emerges. Tariffs increase the volume and speed of decisions. A lean team reduces the number of people who can make and check them. Rushed AI fills the gap with output that still needs expert review.
AI scales whatever judgment a finance team already has, and when that judgment is thin, it scales the gaps too
A popular narrative holds that AI will fill in talent gaps. However, technology adopted without the capability to supervise it just moves the risk from the spreadsheet to the AI model, and from the analyst’s desk to an output that is time consuming to double check. Gartner advises CFOs against focusing on process and technology while expecting digitally skilled employees to materialize and manage it.
Build judgment alongside tools. Pair every AI deployment with a plan for the skills needed to supervise it. Research shows the organizations getting the most from AI reinvest the time it saves into their people.
Treat talent development as risk management. Fund development the way you fund audit readiness or cybersecurity.
Use tariff volatility as a forcing function. Each tariff cycle is a live test of finance’s planning muscle. Use it to fix long-standing gaps with connected planning instead of rebuilding the same spreadsheets every quarter.
Choose AI that runs on your guardrails. Agentic AI that runs within existing security, permissions, and audit frameworks can expand what a lean team can test and monitor.
So what should CFOs prioritize when tariffs, talent, and tech hit at once? Capability first, with technology built alongside it.
Invest in the people who can interpret volatility, give them tools that fit governed workflows, and use every trade shock to strengthen the system instead of patching around it. The CFOs who get that order right will turn three compounding pressures into a lasting advantage.
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