News built for finance pros
CFO Brew helps finance pros navigate their roles with insights into risk management, compliance, and strategy through our newsletter, virtual events, and digital guides.
Stay with us: It’s another survey about what CFOs are prioritizing right now, and how the role is expanding. Ooooh, and there’s AI stuff in there too.
It sure seems like you’ve heard this one before. And, in a sense, you have. But as the year draws nearer to a close, it’s time to start looking ahead to 2025—and the savvy financial professional (cough*you*cough) does their homework.
So, what’s top of mind for your peers? In a word: cybersecurity.
Three out of five finance leaders and professionals ranked data privacy and security as a high priority in 2025, according to the annual Global Finance Trends survey from international consulting firm Protiviti, which polled more than 950 finance leaders around the world. Amid growing cyber regulations and reporting requirements, including the SEC’s amended Cybersecurity Disclosure Rule, it makes sense.
The concern is widespread enough to span the public and private sectors. Even though the majority of new or updated rules and enforcement actions only apply to publicly held companies, the survey’s authors noted that “results show that finance leaders in private companies and government organizations also rate data security and privacy as their top overall priority (in a virtual tie with FP&A),” indicating that “cyber accountability is relevant to the entire business community ecosystem, rather than merely a reflection of required regulatory reporting.”
Another thing that’s everybody’s business now? FP&A. While formerly siloed within the finance group, FP&A now increasingly spans nearly all business groups, becoming more essential amid lasting economic volatility and uncertainty.
Case in point, according to the survey authors? FP&A’s high ranking on the top finance priorities list, coming just after cybersecurity. Here, there was a noted difference between public and private companies, with CFOs at public companies ranking FP&A higher than their private company counterparts. That’s no huge surprise, though, given shareholder interest in more advanced analytics, the survey’s authors point out.
Finally, we have to leave you with some AI updates. Nothing groundbreaking: 34% of finance organizations said they were currently deploying generative AI.
But there’s an interesting morsel in there: Publicly held companies appear to use generative AI more than private and government organizations. 44% of public companies reported using GenAI in finance, compared with just 29% of private organizations.
“This could be a result of their greater willingness to invest in these technologies based on their long-term promise, as well as the more immediate benefits for generative AI to support key activities such as process automation and financial forecasting,” the survey’s authors added.
Doesn’t that give you something to chew on?