The role of the CFO has never been more critical – or more complex. From ongoing economic uncertainty to rising compliance demands, CFOs are under pressure to do it all: serve as strategists, manage risk, drive innovation, and partner with CEOs and the business to deliver the company vision, all while guiding their own finance departments through digital and now AI transformation.
Increasingly, success comes down to one defining factor: how CFOs approach the latest technology to create a competitive advantage.
Specifically, finance leaders must now consider embedding agentic AI into their functions — advanced technology that now goes beyond traditional automation to make autonomous decisions, take actions, and continuously adapt with minimal human intervention.
But this is not a journey the CFO takes alone. Finance professionals — specifically accountants — play a central role in transforming strategic technology objectives into effective implementation.
From automation to autonomy
Automation in finance isn't new. Process automation using robotic process automation and machine learning has greatly reduced manual processing in finance, while chatbots have improved help desk interactions both internally and externally in the organization. Agentic AI is now going further by managing workflows autonomously while constantly monitoring, learning and adjusting to achieve defined goals.
For the finance function, what once seemed like a transformation happening around them has become a transformation powered by them. With their expertise in process automation, using the new AI technologies, CFOs can build finance teams that operate at new levels of speed and intelligence by further automating manual processes such as closing the books faster, generating scenario-based insights in real time, and strengthening compliance controls without adding headcount.
In this new reality, accounting professionals are indispensable stewards. If AI drafts a journal entry, accountants validate the context. If AI prepares commentary for a quarterly report, accountants check the compliance with accounting standards and that it communicates the right analysis and message. Accounting professionals are the true gatekeepers of AI agentic outputs. Far from replacing accounting staff, these systems elevate their role, freeing them from repetitive tasks and allowing them to focus on higher-value analysis and quality assurance.
What it looks like in practice
To get a sense of how this transformation plays out on the ground, consider a familiar, yet nuanced, accounting process like accounts payable and cash management. Traditionally, departments spend hours resolving disputes or tracking down payment details. Today, an agentic AI system can extract data from ERP platforms, analyze the tone of a vendor's message, and generate tailored responses, sometimes resolving issues before a human ever steps in. And when the system flags something unusual, accountants can step in to interpret the context. With the groundwork done for them, they can apply their strategic lens to determine whether a deeper control issue is at play.
Another area where accountants can employ agentic AI is the month-end close. Instead of combing through journal entries manually, AI agents can classify and validate them, flagging anomalies in real time. Yet it is still the accountant who confirms exceptions and applies judgment when rules are not black and white. In these scenarios, technology may augment the process, but accountants provide the trust and oversight.
The CFO's AI agentic playbook
As accountants gain powerful new capabilities for themselves, CFOs and finance leaders must set the vision and create the right conditions for agentic AI success. Three focus areas stand out in particular:
- Establishing governance: AI systems must be transparent, auditable and aligned with regulatory standards. Accountants will increasingly focus audits on ensuring AI outputs can be trusted and traced.
- Investing in upskilling: The finance talent model is changing rapidly. Finance professionals need AI fluency, from validating outputs to training digital agents. CFOs who invest in workforce readiness will build confident, capable teams.
- Embedding AI into the culture: CFOs must move beyond pilots and foster a culture where the staff feel empowered by AI as a multiplier, not threatened by it — encouraging them to apply professional judgment and strategic thinking where most valuable.
Why accountants hold the key
The emergence of agentic AI marks a new chapter for finance in which accountants will be essential to driving success. They will test, refine and either validate or challenge AI-generated outputs. They will confirm that in the drive for efficiency, accuracy and ethics remain at the forefront.
To be clear, the core role of accountants won't change. They will remain guardians of financial integrity. But in the AI agentic era, they will also become orchestrators of digital systems, interpreters of machine-generated insights, and trusted advisors who guide organizations through complexity.
The duality is: CFOs set the agentic course, and accountants implement and navigate it. Together, they will help finance not only keep pace with change but lead it.
