Confidence in AI is essential for finance teams: they must capture AI’s efficiency and analytical benefits without compromising accuracy, security, or professional accountability. In A Question of Confidence: Closing the AI Trust Gap in Finance, Jahana Khan, Customer Success Team Manager at ExpenseIn, James Hunter, CFO at AccountsIQ, and Kevin Appleby, COO and Podcast Host at GrowCFO, examine findings from AccountsIQ’s CFO mindset report and consider what those findings mean for AI adoption across finance.
The session highlights a tension: CFOs report trust in AI outputs, yet remain concerned about over-reliance, oversight, and data security. The speakers recommend starting with clear, valuable use cases, asking vendors about error rates and explainability, and preserving human approval and audit trails—especially for work connected to financial reporting.
Highlights:
- AccountsIQ’s survey of 1,000+ senior finance leaders included 411 CFOs and examined confidence, adoption pressure, and trust in AI.
- While 97% of CFOs said they were confident in the accuracy of their financial data, 49% said financial strategy was often or always decided without sufficient insight.
- 92% of CFOs felt pressure to adopt AI faster than they were comfortable with.
- 89% of CFOs said they trusted AI-driven outputs, while 86% worried their organizations could become over-reliant on AI.
- The panel identified human oversight and data security as significant adoption concerns, and emphasized explainability, audit trails, and keeping humans accountable for outputs.
- Practical recommendations included assessing existing “shadow AI” use, targeting repetitive work such as month-end close, and checking whether AI adoption delivers real value.
