IBM survey finds CFOs taking larger roles in enterprise AI strategy

IBM says 62% of 1,500 surveyed chief financial officers and equivalent senior finance leaders have taken on responsibility for enterprise technology or AI strategy. Just 6% described their finance organizations as ready to use AI at scale.

The responses place finance leaders closer to decisions about AI strategy and spending. They also expose a wide gap between that expanded authority and operational readiness. For related context, a separate IBM workforce survey examined the gap between AI oversight priorities and worker experience.

In IBM’s 2026 CFO Study, 56% of respondents reported more authority over portfolio management and capital reallocation, while 54% reported more responsibility for business-model or growth-strategy design.

IBM defines “transformation-ready” finance organizations as those that consistently embed AI in finance workflows and decision-making across the enterprise. Beyond the 6% in that category, 48% of respondents placed their finance function in a developing stage, where AI skills were concentrated in particular roles, teams or use cases, the company said. Another 42% described their organizations as highly ready, with AI-fluent teams able to scale the technology.

The survey also asked how finance teams are changing capital allocation. IBM said 48% of respondents frequently update allocations for AI and growth investments using real-time, data-driven insights. An equal share said finance actively tracks value attributed to AI and reallocates capital accordingly. Only 6% said they let AI recommend or execute reallocations within defined guardrails.

“Today, it’s not enough for CFOs and their teams to simply evaluate decisions,” IBM CFO James Kavanaugh said in the company’s study announcement. “They need to shape them from the start.”

Respondents expect that remit to widen. IBM said 56% expect greater responsibility for financial and ethical AI guardrails by 2030, while 55% expect a larger role in operating models, workforce strategy and organizational structure. Another 52% expect more responsibility for enterprise value creation and portfolio strategy.

IBM also reported that organizations it classified as having “AI-first CFOs” recorded revenue growth rates 23% higher than peers from 2022 to 2024. The finding is an association based on IBM’s segmentation and a composite measure that incorporates respondents’ assessments of growth, efficiency and productivity, agility and adaptability, and risk preparedness relative to competitors. It does not establish that the CFO practices caused the difference.

The IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics conducted the survey from February through April 2026 across 33 geographies and 26 industries, according to IBM. The published materials do not disclose the response rate, sampling frame, recruitment method, weighting, margin of sampling error or full questionnaire, limiting an independent assessment of how representative the results are.