Salesforce: CFOs are Turning to AI to Fight Complexity

In a new report from Salesforce, AI seems to be the fallback for finance executives globally when it comes to conversations about saving time.

The research points to a change in the CFO role, with more responsibility resting on the tech side in place of finance. 

Salesforce’s CFO Priorities report also points towards revenue complexity as a reason for increased strain on finance teams. 

The survey covered three continents, spanning 865 finance leaders. 

Relief can be found through the use of agentic AI, with up to 90% of respondents reporting benefits such as time-saving, productivity and cost savings, alongside forecast accuracy. 

Speaking to Finance Chief exclusively, Paul O’Sullivan, CTO of Salesforce UK says: “Nearly seven in 10 finance leaders tell us their role has expanded in the past year, and it's not one thing driving that, it's the accumulation.

"More revenue models, more sales channels, more governance and compliance to manage, each one adds friction, and finance ends up absorbing it. 

“We call that the complexity tax. The instinct is to solve it by adding headcount, but that just scales the manual work along with the business. The better answer is connecting the data and simplifying the process itself, so the finance team spends its time on decisions instead of reconciliation.”

Chief financial and AI officer?

The role of the finance officer has changed, with the survey highlighting that nearly three quarters of respondents agree as their role has changed in the last twelve months - and the reason for this is AI. 

AI overtook every other driver finance leaders were asked about, including revenue complexity. 

AI overtook every other driver finance leaders were asked about, including revenue complexity. 

Half of respondents noted that they are the primary decision makers for AI strategy at their place of business, investigating the value added by the technology and identifying where. 

Those using AI report a 90% positive ROI, as the results indicate that financial admin that is undertaken manually is taking up valuable time and is introducing risk. 

Due to increased complexity in the lifecycle and diverse revenue models, manual work is sometimes still appropriate. 

Out of the 865 surveyed, a 67% majority say they still complete one in five workflows manually, often via the reliable spreadsheet. 

Finance leaders could be automating up to 40% of work in their teams. 

Does AI reduce accountability in finance, however?

Paul continues: “I'd argue the opposite, done properly it sharpens accountability rather than blurring it. AI can absorb the repetitive work and surface the insight, but someone still has to decide what to do with it and own the result. That's exactly why governance shows up as one of the biggest named blockers to AI adoption in finance right now, alongside security and integration. 

“Teams are being careful for good reason. The way through isn't to slow down, it's to build the controls in from the start: clean data, clear ownership, human oversight tied to a specific business outcome. Bolting governance on after the fact is how you lose the trust you're trying to build.”

Revenue complexity 

While there is a shake up in the responsibilities of the CFO, the finance office says that the numbers are getting more complex, with 71% of leaders saying their company is selling more through channels than it did a year ago. 

Though direct transactions maintain a dominant position in revenue, digital self-service platforms, partner networks, social channels and mobile applications are all delivering notable revenue growth.

Revenue models are also changing, adding another layer of complexity to the office of the CFO. 

The research says that 65% of professionals track deals across more than one revenue model, in opposition to historical one-time sales. 

While the addition of work could be eased by the introduction of AI, finance leaders still have concerns about the technology. 

Security was named by 46% as the biggest barrier to using AI. A similar figure (42%) cite governance and integration concerns as a blocker for AI use. 

Will rising ROI build confidence in CFOs? 

Paul explains: “Ninety-one percent of finance leaders using AI are already seeing real ROI, so confidence is catching up fast. But the interesting bit isn't the confidence, it's what's changing underneath it. 

“CFOs aren't just sitting back and watching AI prove itself anymore. They're getting stuck in and shaping how it gets used. Once your team has spent months using AI to cut friction out of everyday work, you start to know where it can be trusted and where you still need someone checking the output. 

“That's the experience CFOs are now bringing into the room when they influence AI investment decisions across the rest of the business.”

Salesforce partners: 

Accenture: One of Salesforce's largest Global Strategic Partners. It specialises in large-scale enterprise deployments, complex system integrations and industry-specific digital transformation solutions.

PwC: A sponsor of Salesforce’s recent Agentforce World Tour, PwC has been recognised as a valuable partner of Salesforce since 2013. It is one of Salesforce’s most prominent Global Strategic Alliances. 

Deloitte: Salesforce and Deloitte Digital form a global strategic alliance combining Salesforce’s cloud technologies (CRM, AI, Agentforce) with Deloitte’s industry consulting. Together, they deliver large-scale digital transformations, AI integration and customer-experience solutions across 40+ countries. 

Capgemini: Capgemini specialises in multi-country enterprise rollouts, omni-channel commerce and customer experience transformations across sectors like retail, automotive and industrial manufacturing.

Cognizant: As a Global Strategic Partner, Cognizant delivers large-scale platform engineering, legacy CRM migrations and automated workflows using Salesforce Agentforce.