CFOs Leading the Charge for Automation and AI

2 min read
February 13, 2025
CoStar Real Estate Manager Blog

In a recent study from Tipalti, a leading fintech company, 72 percent of financial executives agree that CFOs are tasked with doing more with less, and the same percentage indicated that they’re likely to look to implementing AI and prioritizing digital transformation to achieve their business goals.

What’s changing in 2025?

In the same study, almost 2/3rds of executives rated their organization’s readiness for this digital transformation as moderate or less. Where past CFOs were able to focus primarily on the bottom line, today CFOs are facing more internal (e.g. the accountant talent shortage) and external investor pressures than ever before. 2025 will be a banner year for them becoming key decision makers in their organizations’ AI readiness.

"As CFOs want to lead their companies in building efficient back office teams, it’s imperative they harness the transformative power of digital technology to streamline workflows and eliminate manual processes.”

 

How will it impact lease accounting?

This won’t strictly concern the platforms, technologies and providers who are answering the call for modernization and digital transformation. It will require change and evolution on the part of the people working with this every day.

Accounting teams must evolve to adopt more sophisticated compliance frameworks and risk assessment tools, upskilling themselves with continuous learning and innovative approaches. This will involve discerning which platforms truly offer AI functionality powered by machine-learning models that don’t require tedious manual reviews to validate market data & analytics.

Data security and integrity must not be compromised as capabilities expand, either. Accounting teams must pivot to systems that do not share data with outside sources, introducing risk and uncertainty. As we mention in other chapters, rampant consolidation amidst platforms means it is paramount to align with stable, well-capitalized providers who aren’t at risk at being sold off or combined to unknown operators.

The accounting teams of today must identify these providers and work together with their CFOs to lead their organizations on a united front in embracing and implementing this rapid change. This will determine the direction and success of revenue operations for their respective enterprises for years to come.