Top 3 CFO Priorities for 2026
With 2025 coming to an end, Conor Flanagan, ERP Team Lead at Storm, explores some of the top CFO priorities for 2026, and how organisations can prepare for the trends to come.
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2025 has been an interesting year in the world of finance, technological advancements like automation and AI have brought about significant changes in traditional financial processes, leading to greater pressure on teams to learn and adapt quickly. Competitive advantage in 2026 will come from leaders who combine a sense of adaptability with bold investment in AI and agentic intelligence. Additionally, organisations that can enhance accuracy, efficiency, and customer centricity while strengthening resilience will set the pace for 2026. Below, we discuss the top 3 financial priorities we expect to see in the year to come, and outline how CFOs can get ahead of the curve.
1. Accelerating AI Adoption
Gartner's 2026 CFO Agenda highlights accelerating AI adoption as a strategic imperative for next year. For CFOs, the strategic question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how quickly they can operationalise AI within workflows, rebuild processes around intelligent automation, and prepare their teams to work with these autonomous systems. However, despite increasing investment in AI seen in recent years, Gartner reports that only 44% of CFOs believe they can accelerate AI adoption across the finance function. As with many business functions right now, it seems people are interested in adopting AI tools, but not entirely sure where they can add the most value quickly. Finance leaders who move decisively will unlock faster cycles, higher accuracy, and a more forward-focused finance function. Those who hesitate may find themselves outpaced by competitors that have embraced an intelligent ecosystem.
The good news for organisations already using or considering D365 Business Central as their ERP system is that they will have a head start in incorporating AI into their finance processes. Built into Business Central, AI assistant Copilot is already adding value by assisting with tasks like bank reconciliation, finding information, analysing data, highlighting trends, and summarising reports. Further, the roadmap for Business Central outlines agentic AI features that will have the power to automate more complex financial processes like creating sales quotes and orders, and processing vendor invoices.
2. Elevated Security & Governance
‘Highly significant’ cyber-attacks increased by 50% in the past year, according to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. With that, we suspect that one of the most important 2026 priorities for CFOs, as well as all C-suite executives, will be cybersecurity and governance. CFOs will be tasked with integrating cybersecurity and governance into financial planning to enhance risk management and protect sensitive financial data. This shift will require closer collaboration with CIOs and compliance officers, investment in advanced security technologies, and the implementation of transparent reporting processes to demonstrate resilience and compliance in an evolving threat landscape.
For organisations that do not already have the necessary protections in place, considering governance and security solutions may be a good place to start. Microsoft offers a range of solutions like Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, and Purview, which can help businesses protect their data, enhance governance, and minimise risk.
3. Accuracy, Efficiency, and Agility
The economic landscape is getting harder to predict, meaning it's now more important than ever for finance teams to report, plan, and forecast as accurately as possible so that managers can stay agile and make informed decisions quickly. A modern ERP system can redefine what accuracy and efficiency look like by enabling more accurate forecasting, improved data quality, and unlocking advanced analytics that can help CFOs respond to volatility. D365 Business Central centralises business data to ensure organisations have access to a single source of truth, avoiding issues like data duplication and inconsistent data. This ensures CFOs can access accurate, real-time, high-quality data to support their strategic planning and decision-making. Precision will be one of the most valuable competitive advantages in 2026. CFOs who build a data-driven finance environment powered by modern solutions will be able to guide their organisations with clarity and confidence.
If you would like to learn more about how Business Central can support CFOs in 2026, get in touch with one of our solution experts today.
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