Artificial intelligence tools are springing up for almost every corporate discipline these days, and financial planning and analysis is no exception.
A majority (79%) of FP&A teams have adopted AI tools to some degree, according to a survey of 258 FP&A professionals by Drivetrain, an AI-native business planning platform.
However, most deployments so far are producing quick operational wins, such as Excel automation and polishing reports, rather than strategic transformations, according to the survey report.
“Few teams are using AI to drive scenario modeling, influence planning cycles or guide cross-functional decisions,” Drivetrain wrote. “In short, AI is helping teams move faster but not necessarily smarter.”
Among FP&A teams that are using AI, 93% are employing ChatGPT or similar large language models, 22% use Microsoft 365 Copilot and 20% use the AI features in business intelligence tools. By comparison, so far just 17% are using AI-powered finance tools such as those provided by Drivetrain.
For finance departments, current and anticipated trends are starting to put a premium on hiring AI specialists that aren’t necessarily finance professionals, according to the report. New roles like AI analyst and AI systems expert are expected to become staples in finance teams within the next two to three years, Drivetrain said.
“For the first time in decades, the most critical new finance hires won’t have finance backgrounds — they’ll have technical skills that barely existed when today’s CFOs started their careers,” said Drivetrain CEO Alok Goel.
Asked to identify critical skills for FP&A professionals over the next three years, more of those surveyed cited data storytelling and communication (87%) than modeling and analytics (65%).
Curiously, though, while enthusiasm for AI is high within finance teams, a yawning learning gap persists. Two-thirds (68%) of survey participants said they spent five or fewer hours in the previous month on upskilling in order to stay relevant in the AI era, the research found. Notably, 15% didn’t invest any time in that, and only 4% invested 10 or more hours.
Drivetrain recommended that finance functions should consider creating structured initiatives to help professionals build AI fluency. These could include internal AI workshops, monthly AI “challenge days,” team-based prompt engineering contests or peer-led sharing of use cases and learnings.
The report quoted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s recent statement as a warning to finance professionals: “You’re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.”
The research also found that only 28% of finance teams have formal guidance or policies on responsible use of AI, while 39% reported there is some informal guidance, and 26% said there are no AI policies or guidance at all.
