After years of talk about improving systems and processes, CFOs are increasingly running into a tougher constraint: people.
Tighter labor markets, evolving regulation and rapid technological change are placing new demands on finance teams. After years of investment in automation and system upgrades, CFOs are now grappling with whether their organizations have the talent, capacity and leadership depth required to meet those demands. The ability to build and sustain effective finance teams is becoming a key measure of CFO leadership.
That shift reflects broader changes in how finance supports the business. The tension shows up clearly in new Controllers Council research, which suggests finance leaders are running into people challenges just as automation accelerates. CFOs are more deeply involved in strategy, capital allocation and risk management, which places greater pressure on finance organizations to move quickly, communicate clearly and exercise judgment beyond traditional reporting responsibilities.
Talent questions move to the forefront
Talent has emerged as the most immediate challenge for many finance leaders. According to a 2025 McKinsey CFO survey cited in The Council’s report, more than 60% of finance leaders now rank talent acquisition and retention as their top priority, ahead of regulatory compliance and technology investment.
At the same time, PwC research referenced in the report shows an 80% increase in job postings seeking finance professionals with “fusion skills,” combining accounting expertise with data literacy, digital fluency and cross-functional collaboration. The pipeline has tightened as well, with the AICPA reporting a nearly 20% decline in CPA exam candidates since 2019.
When asked about the most candid conversations he is having with CFOs in private, Jack McCullough, president of the CFO Leadership Council, said many finance leaders are looking for a plan to help address their talent challenges as an ethical and moral dilemma.
“CFOs are telling me, ‘I love AI. It’s not the future anymore, it’s the immediate, it’s the present,’” said McCullough, who was not involved in the Controllers Council report but provided a CFO insight on the topics researchers highlighted. “[But they’re also telling me,] ‘I’m going to have to reduce staff because it’s replacing my team. Help me with that. How do I communicate that to employees who have done nothing wrong, who are good at their job, it’s just that technology is slowly replacing them?”
Those discussions, he said, often include a difficult reality: Employees are frequently asked to help implement and train the very systems that ultimately eliminate their roles. “You get this situation where you say, ‘Work really hard for the next six months to get this AP automation tool up to speed,’” McCullough said. “And then it’s, ‘You may or may not have a job at the end of that.’”
The issue comes up most often in roles built around repetitive work. “AP clerks, AR clerks, those types of things, they tend to do repetitive tasks that are easy to automate,” McCullough said. “CFOs ask, how do you do this strategically, and how do you do right by those employees?”
The report suggests CFOs are responding by shifting focus from hiring alone to ongoing development. Upskilling, reskilling and talent management are becoming continuous priorities. Leadership development is gaining importance as finance professionals are expected to partner more closely with operations, IT and commercial teams.
The potential quarrel that comes with automation
As finance teams automate more of their core work, technology choices are increasingly shaping how work is experienced inside organizations. Tools designed to speed up the close or streamline compliance are also changing roles, expectations and internal dynamics. Deloitte research cited in the report suggests that automating reconciliations, close processes and compliance checks can free up as much as 30% of a controller’s time, pushing finance teams toward analysis, planning and decision support.
That shift has made technology decisions inseparable from culture. McCullough said that even if a CFO is confident in how a new tool or system can impact their team, selling that idea to stakeholders such as the board or CEO is a significant challenge.
“They’re not asking whether the technology works,” he said. “They’re asking, what’s the message here? How do you do this without destroying trust?” Those culture questions often intersect with leadership pressure, McCullough said, particularly in private conversations that differ sharply from the polished narratives shared onstage.
These initiatives and collaborations are forcing some CFOs to vent to their peers at McCullough’s networking events about their working relationship with other leaders. “You move it to closed doors, and it’s, ‘Gee, my boss is a real jerk. Does anyone else work for someone like this?’” McCullough said. “Or it’s not even that. It’s a boss who’s a little reckless.”
In those situations, CFOs often describe being caught between internal planning and external messaging.
McCullough said that this communication breakdown, which can be rooted in a technology disagreement, can then spread to other areas of the business. “The CFO, the VP of sales and the VP of marketing all think we’re going to grow 8 to 12%,” McCullough said. “Then the boss goes into a board meeting and says we’re going to grow 20%. Now the CFO says, ‘What do I do?’”
Those moments, he said, are where leadership judgment becomes as important as technical expertise. “You can’t lie, and you can’t throw the CEO under the bus either,” McCullough said. “That’s where communication and credibility really matter.”
As finance teams spend less time on manual work and more time embedded in business decisions, culture has become a new lever for CFOs. Research cited in the report from Harvard Business Review found that teams with transparent cultures experience 50% higher retention rates, reinforcing the link between leadership approach and workforce stability.
When considering the Controllers Council’s findings and McCullough’s insights together, the next phase of finance transformation seems to be being shaped less by system selection and more by organizational capability. CFOs who treat talent and culture with the same rigor as their core finance duties are likely to be better positioned to manage risk, support growth and navigate uncertainty. The strength of the finance team itself is becoming the clearest indicator of readiness for what comes next for the organization as a whole.
