AI in the finance function: what a new CFO report reveals

You may not have a CFO yet. But the question comes up regularly: are we managing our finances properly, or just the way we always have? You're not alone in asking. 98 percent of Nordic CFOs say they've been affected by external conditions over the past year, according to a new report from Hypergene. And that's companies that already have a full finance function in place.

In brief:

• 98 percent of Nordic CFOs say they are affected by changes in the external environment
• Yet more than a third make no immediate course correction when conditions actually shift
• 95 percent use AI, but only around 1 in 10 use it primarily to make better decisions
• Access to quality data remains flat at 37 percent, the same level as last year
• Confidence in forecasting ability has dropped from 55 to 36 percent in a single year

Everyone feels the impact, but few act quickly

Hypergene's report is based on responses from 489 Nordic CFOs and in-depth interviews with four of them. Almost everyone feels external pressure. Only 2 percent say they haven't been affected at all. But the sense of being prepared doesn't always hold when it really counts.

More than a third of finance functions make no immediate changes in practice when something significant actually happens. Some wait for the next regular planning cycle. Others simply let existing decisions run on as before. And for one in five companies, it takes over a month to update the forecast after a major shock, even though conditions can change in a matter of days.

That gap, between how prepared you feel and what you actually do, is the real point of the report.

AI is everywhere, but rarely used for better decisions

The same pattern shows up in how AI is used. 95 percent of CFOs have started using the technology, with only 5 percent saying they don't use AI at all. But when you look at what it's actually used for, the picture shifts. For close to half, the benefit is still mainly about working faster, not making better decisions.

An AI tool that just speeds up the same old way of working doesn't give you better insight. It gives you the same insight, faster.

Not sure whether your finances are built on the right data, or just quicker guesswork? See how we make sure the foundation is right from the start.

Data is still the real bottleneck

It's rarely about the technology being poor. It's about the data it has to work with. Just over a third of CFOs have good access to current data on things like interest rates, energy prices, and other external factors, a share that has barely moved since last year.

AI built on poor data doesn't get smarter. It just gets faster at being wrong.

What does this mean if you don't have a dedicated CFO function?

This kind of gap usually builds up over time. An AI tool is added here, a new system connected there, without anyone ever building a foundation to hold it all together. Larger companies with an established finance function are already in that situation, and the report shows how hard it is to fix after the fact.

Smaller and growing companies actually have an advantage here, precisely because the foundation isn't already locked in. The right data and the right AI can be built in from the start, as part of how the finances are run, rather than layered on top of existing processes later. Feeling prepared is not the same as being able to act, and that's exactly the gap a company has the opportunity to avoid building in the first place.

Common questions

We don't have a CFO. Does that mean we're behind? Not necessarily. The report shows that even companies with an established finance function struggle with the same gaps. Not having embedded old ways of working yet can actually be an advantage, if the foundation is built right from the start.

How do we know if we have this kind of gap in our own finances? A simple test is to ask how long it would take to get an updated, reliable answer if something unexpected happened tomorrow. If the answer is days or weeks rather than hours, it's often a sign that data and processes aren't joined up well enough.

Source: Hypergene, "Confessions of a Nordic CFO 2026", based on responses from 489 Nordic finance executives and in-depth interviews with four CFOs, published 17 September 2026.