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By: Karan Marwah
02 Jul 2026 5 min read
However, if you probe a little deeper, a different reality begins to emerge. A significant part of the CFO's time is still tied to running the engine: operational oversight, reporting cycles, reconciliations, controls, compliance and the constant cadence of keeping things moving.
That tension between what the CFO's role is becoming and what the finance function still needs to sustain is, in my view, the defining theme in the evolution of finance today.
The aspiration is clear. The constraint is structural.
Our interactions with finance leaders across sectors point to a fairly clear picture. CFOs increasingly see their role as centred on strategic planning, decision support and stronger business partnering. Technology and automation are also moving up the agenda.
But here's the gap.
In practice, a substantial share of leadership attention is still absorbed by operational oversight and the ongoing demands of running the finance engine.
This is not just a prioritisation issue. CFOs need more room to focus on strategy. To make that possible, routine finance work needs to become simpler, systems need to be better connected and ownership must be clear.
On one hand, finance is expected to enable growth by entering new markets, improving forecasting and strengthening its role as a strategic partner. On the other hand, it must protect the downside by managing cost pressures, navigating regulatory complexity and responding to increasingly volatile market conditions.
The broader picture reflects this duality. Finance leaders are navigating an environment defined by market uncertainty and margin pressure, while simultaneously being expected to strengthen forecasting, drive transformation and deepen finance’s strategic contribution to the business.
This is the CFO's capacity challenge. Finance now has to help the business grow, manage risk, support transformation and maintain control, while still handling reporting, reconciliations, compliance and operational oversight. In practice, finance is being asked to transform while continuing to operate at full speed.
So, what changes now?
In my view, three shifts separate finance functions that are evolving meaningfully from those that are only adapting at the margins.
The biggest opportunity lies in rethinking how core finance activities are delivered. This is about simplifying end-to-end processes, reducing manual dependencies, and creating a finance operating model in which routine activities require minimal leadership intervention.
Until the "run" is stable, predictable and efficient, the "change" agenda will always struggle for attention.
Technology, automation and agentic AI can help address this. Many finance teams are still held back by manual processes, talent pressures, inefficient workflows and disintegrated systems. Solving these calls for a rethink of the finance operating model, from how work is organised to how routine tasks are simplified, automated and governed.
Most finance teams today are not short on data. If anything, they are overwhelmed by it.
The real shift is from producing information to shaping decisions.
This requires a stronger linkage between financial insights and business outcomes, clearer narratives, sharper scenario planning and the confidence to challenge long held assumptions.
The CFO's influence is no longer defined by accuracy alone, but by the ability to drive clarity when trade-offs are complex.
Data is the life force that can drive this change. For that to happen, data needs to be freed from the silos it resides in, cleansed of anomalies and errors and made available on tap when and by whom it is required.
Technology and AI will remain central to the evolution of finance, though the real gap is in execution. Too many transformation efforts remain fragmented across systems, pilots and isolated use cases.
The next phase requires treating transformation as a continuous discipline, with clear ownership, measurable outcomes and tighter integration into how finance works day to day. This is where organisations will either unlock real value or remain stuck in experimentation.
Transformation is an overused word. For it to mean anything, it must be translated into clear priorities, practical actions and outcomes that matter to the organisation.
The finance function is not short on ambition. Expectations from finance have expanded sharply as business models become more complex, consumers demand more value and regulation keeps pace with a changing operating environment. The challenge now is not only to catch up, but to stay ahead and help shape how the business responds.
Leading organisations will be defined by how effectively they create the conditions for CFOs to deliver in practice. This will require stronger finance capacity, better use of technology and clearer choices about where leadership time should be spent.
That means making deliberate choices:
Until those choices are made, strategy will continue to compete with execution for attention. There are no easy answers here, and these answers will also differ for organisations and the multi-dimensional contexts in which they operate.
The future of finance will be defined by its ability to move from ambition to execution, which means creating the capacity, systems and operating discipline needed to deliver in practice.
This article first appeared in the FE CFO on 2 July 2026.
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