CFOs are really super duper keen on automation

It’s officially summer, and that means one and only one thing. No, not pool parties, BBQs, or a general sense of ease and happiness. No, summertime means it’s time for another Fed survey, obviously!

The quarterly report from the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta along with Duke University, which gives a glimpse into the minds of around 450 financial executives, revealed some especially interesting insights on CFOs’ AI outlook this time around.

Almost two-thirds of CFOs said their companies were strategically prioritizing the automation of tasks normally performed by employees, and a majority of firms with a plan to automate in the next year expected AI to perform “a wide range of tasks.”

In the last year, six in 10 companies, and almost 85% of large companies, implemented some form of “software, equipment, or technology” to automate tasks that employees used to perform.

“CFOs say their firms are tapping AI to automate a host of tasks, from paying suppliers, invoicing, procurement, financial reporting, and optimizing facilities utilization,”

Duke finance professor John Graham, the academic director of the survey, added in a news release.

Of those that have automated, 37% of firms said they’d already implemented AI. Their main reasoning for all the automation? A whopping 87.2% said their primary motivation was to “enhance business processes.”

And in that regard, we get why they want things running smoothly and efficiently. For the fourth consecutive quarter, CFOs said monetary policy was their most pressing concern, followed by cost pressure and inflation, and labor quality and availability. Those inflation woes are only made worse by the fact that most CFOs expected pricing pressures to stay elevated throughout 2024.

Of course, there’s also an election coming up. While many CFOs were relatively unfazed, almost a third said they were either “postponing, scaling down, delaying, or permanently canceling investment” due to uncertainty around the US presidential election.

Like we said: For some, summer means rest and relaxation, but for CFOs, there’s always something to worry about.