EY survey of 1,600+ finance chiefs reveals widening gap between strategic ambition and action
Most chief financial officers believe they should be shaping how their organizations create value, but a new global study finds the gap between that ambition and reality remains stubbornly wide.
The EY Global DNA of the CFO Survey, published this month, draws on responses from more than 1,600 CFOs and senior finance executives worldwide, supplemented by in-depth interviews. It finds that while 60% of respondents say CFOs should define and shape how the business creates value, fewer than 26% actually lead discussions on key value drivers and just 25% lead investment decisions where returns are uncertain.
The report, part of EY's CFO Imperative Series, identifies six core challenges holding finance leaders back.
Only 21% of CFOs rate their function's AI preparedness as leading or advanced, with most gravitating toward defensive applications such as fraud detection and risk assessment rather than growth-oriented uses like forecasting or dynamic pricing. Larger organizations show a clear edge, with 35% of CFOs at firms generating more than US$10b in revenue describing strong AI capability, compared with 14% at smaller firms.
Data quality emerged as the biggest barrier to securing AI investment, cited by 61% of respondents, followed by the difficulty of building a compelling business case around long-term or indirect benefits.
The survey also points to a cultural problem. Finance transformation outcomes exceeded expectations at just 12% of organizations over the past two years, with 40% reporting slow or limited progress. The research links better outcomes directly to team adaptability, with 42% of CFOs whose teams are highly adaptable reporting transformation results that beat expectations, against just 3% where teams struggle with change.
Joseph Wolk, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Johnson & Johnson, acknowledged that AI investment discipline has historically been uneven. "There was a real concern about falling behind, and in some cases organizations were making investment decisions without the same level of financial discipline applied elsewhere. That is starting to change."
The Secret CFO, a former finance chief at large multinationals and founder of the newsletter of the same name, argued that speed of decision-making will separate the CFOs who succeed. "Differentiation will come down to improving the speed and quality of decision-making across the business. That is not just about technology. It is about understanding processes deeply and being willing to redesign them."
On people development, 68% of CFOs say new skills and leadership styles are now essential, yet people and culture leadership ranks only sixth among their stated development priorities, a disconnect the report warns could undermine transformation efforts.
EY recommends CFOs take more active ownership of value creation, shift AI deployment toward growth applications, and embed adaptability and continuous learning into their team cultures as a foundation for sustainable change.
