The Evolving Role of Finance Teams

Finance and accounting are transforming. In 2025, finance teams aren’t limited to reconciling numbers or closing books. Instead, they act as strategic partners, safeguarding assets, streamlining operations, and influencing growth. Modern finance teams leverage AI-driven insights, enterprisewide collaboration, and advanced forecasting to help guide decisions.

The Shift from Back Office to Boardroom

Finance professionals today contribute far more than historical reports. They bring strategic business partnering, working across departments to align financial plans with company goals. These teams influence decisions on pricing, product launches, hiring, and expansion, turning insights into strategy QBSS+1. Gartner and others highlight the shift: finance is becoming an integrated planning hub, uniting budgeting, forecasting, and modeling into cohesive insights, reinforcing the CFO’s role as a strategic leader, not just a number cruncher Workday.

Leveraging Technology and Data to Enable Insight

AI and automation are central to freeing finance teams from manual tasks. By adopting AI-powered forecasting, anomaly detection, and automation tools, finance teams significantly reduce error rates and cycle times—some report process speedups of up to 85x and error reductions around 90% Workday+8GOLimelight+8grantthornton.com.au+8. With high adoption of cloud-based platforms (used by around 70% of teams) and increased FP&A tech budgets (up 20% for 65% of CFOs), finance teams have better tools to deliver high-value analysis faster GOLimelight.

Those insights are grounded in reliable data. Strong data governance and alignment between CFOs and CIOs are key to scaling these capabilities FP&A Trends+15Workday Blog+15Cube Software+15.

Strategic Business Partnering in Action

Business partnering is more than a trend—it’s becoming a standard expectation. Finance teams now work deeply with other functions to provide context-sensitive decision support. Demand for business partnering skills jumped 9% between 2023 and 2024 Vena Solutions+1. FP&A professionals increasingly guide strategy rather than just report it, helping shape company direction with forecasts, scenario modeling, and performance storytelling FP&A TrendsAbacumCube Software.

This role shift adds value: organizations where FP&A influences C-suite decisions tend to outperform peers in both revenue growth and capital returns GOLimelight.

New Skills to Match New Responsibilities

With evolving roles comes evolving skills. In 2025, CFOs and finance teams need digital transformation savvy, including GenAI, machine learning, and sustainability reporting. Deloitte notes that the CFO’s job scope expanded by 19% between 2018 and 2023 FP&A Trends+6theaustralian.com.au+6deloitte.wsj.com+6. AvidXchange reports that finance professionals are shouldering more strategic tasks beyond traditional accounting, fueled by automation, data analytics, and risk management demands avidxchange.com.

Yet there’s a skills gap—78% of CFOs acknowledge growing talent deficits in their teams SSO Network. To address this, companies are investing in upskilling on analytics, scenario modeling, and AI (beyond just adopting platforms) Workday Blog+1.

Real Needs, Real Impact

CFOs face mounting complexity, from geopolitical risks and trade volatility to sustainability mandates and demographic shifts. These pressures demand finance leaders who can manage risk, deliver insight, and lead transformationtheaustralian.com.au. Aligning ESG, AI integration, resilience, and culture shifts into finance planning is the new normdeloitte.wsj.comtheaustralian.com.au.