Ireland’s CFOs are turning disruption into opportunity by combining disciplined investment with careful cost control amid ongoing headwinds. With inflation expectations moderating, there is a growing sense of cautious optimism and ambition for growth.

In fact, 72% of Irish CFOs now expect revenue to rise, a significant increase from 45% in the spring. Since our last survey, we have seen how finance leaders are managing uncertainty by protecting margins while positioning their organisations for sustainable success. 

Sentiment is improving, but many remain conservative. Geopolitical risks, shifting trade dynamics, and global uncertainty continue to influence the outlook, with 65% of CFOs citing these factors as major threats to their organisations, and 30% reporting impacts from trade tariffs. Talent, however, has emerged as the foremost business risk in a tight labour market, leading to selective hiring. At the same time, CFOs are navigating economic, cyber, and regulatory pressures. In response to the challenges and opportunities ahead, CFOs are focusing on the following key priorities:

1. Mitigating trade risks through liquidity management, enhanced supply chain resilience, and diversification strategies. Leveraging data analytics and scenario planning to support agile and informed decision-making in a volatile global environment.
2. Accelerating the adoption of AI and automation to improve cost management and operational efficiency. Investing in IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and productivity enhancements, alongside advancing digital transformation and outsourcing, to boost operational agility.
3. Focusing on talent development to address the top business risk of retaining and attracting skilled professionals. Placing an emphasis on upskilling in AI and analytics enables finance functions to evolve from transactional roles into strategic, value-creating partners.  

Over the next year, Irish finance leaders will continue to balance cost discipline with strategic investment in digitalisation and growth initiatives.

Those who view resilience not only as a means to absorb shocks but as a driver for innovation and competitive advantage will be best placed to successfully lead their organisations into the future. 

Tom Hynes,  Partner, Finance Transformation  

We have seen a slight improvement in business sentiment in recent months, likely reflecting the EU–US trade framework agreement announced during the summer. However, businesses continue to navigate a challenging trade environment, and levels of uncertainty are nearly double those seen 12 months ago.  

In our experience, businesses that succeed in turbulent times are those that prepare, engage, and plan ahead by bringing together finance, tax, legal, risk, and supply chain leaders. This multi-disciplinary approach not only helps manage trade disruption and tariff exposure, but also builds the resilience needed for what comes next.

To date, we have seen organisations adopt proactive strategies centred on diversification, risk assessment, supply chain optimisation, and stronger stakeholder relationships. It is important to assess what government supports may be available to companies. For example, as part of the government’s Market Diversification Action Plan, Enterprise Ireland offer a number of supports for qualifying companies. 

While stockpiling has been one short-term response to tariffs, it is not a medium-term solution. Other strategies to consider include using customs reliefs like First Sale for Export and bonded warehouses, reviewing transfer pricing, or reconfiguring supply chains. While reconfiguring the supply chain may sound logical, tariff rates are not the only consideration. These changes must be carefully weighed, considering pricing and revenue growth, working capital, fulfilment timelines, warehousing capacity, and vendor performance. Even small shifts in location or lead time can affect time-critical supply chains. 

As we move into 2026, some of our clients are using recent trade disruption as a catalyst for transformation, accelerating the digitalisation of their supply chains through automation, analytics, and AI. 

Louise Kelly,  Global Trade Strategy & Resilience Lead  

CFOs are increasingly influential in shaping enterprise strategy, moving beyond traditional financial stewardship to become strategic leaders, driving growth, innovation, and digital transformation. Often, they are leading the charge in embracing automation and data-driven insights focusing on reducing costs and capturing value. This positions them uniquely to align AI investments and unlock new revenue streams.

Finance leaders are already recognising the benefits of AI as a capability that can transform financial operations, from AI-driven insights and financial planning to risk management and cash flow optimisation, while automating routine tasks to boost productivity. However, central to any AI adoption journey is trust, security, and compliance. The most successful adopters pursue a clear but cautious strategy, building strong foundations through cloud infrastructure, enhanced data and knowledge management, defined AI governance frameworks, and robust business cases that deliver measurable ROI.

As finance leaders navigate challenges around data and technology, they must also evolve their teams and operating models. This requires developing new skills, creating new structures, and setting new priorities focused on insight, judgement, strategy, business partnering, and informed decision-making.

Looking ahead, preparing for emerging AI trends such as hyper-personalisation, advanced predictive analytics, and intelligent automation will be critical over the next three to five years.

Ultimately, AI will reshape the CFO role by blending financial expertise with data-driven innovation. CFOs will guide organisations through digital transformation, build cross-disciplinary teams that combine finance and technology skills, and accelerate enterprise-wide value creation in an increasingly complex business environment. 

Emmanuel Adeleke, Partner, AI & Data Lead

Recent economic forecasts and trends in frequent data points echo our survey findings: sentiment is improving but external risks remain elevated and economic growth continues to be a business risk. 

The average effective tariff rate is estimated at just under 18%, its highest level since 1934. Despite this seismic shift in global trade policies, the global and Irish economies have performed better than initially anticipated, prompting upward revisions in forecasts across many regions, including Ireland.

In October, the IMF raised its global growth forecast to 3.2% for this year, up from 2.8% in April. Growth projections for the Euro Area (1.2%), UK (1.3%), and US (2.0%) were also revised upwards.

In Ireland, the Department of Finance indicates growth (measured by Modified Domestic Demand) exceeding 3% in 2025 and reaching 2.3% in 2026. Buoyed by a strong labour market, consumer spending is forecasted to grow by 2.9% this year. This comes as households continue to save €1 out of every €8 of disposable income. Indeed, households continue to accumulate record levels of savings, with deposits standing at over €168bn as of August 2025 (+6.6% YoY).

So, what has changed since April? Consumer spending has remained resilient, despite uncertainty and cost pressures. Businesses have adapted quickly, as evidenced by trade volumes continuing to be solid. Technology investment, driven by AI, has supported US economic growth and importantly, an all-out trade war has been avoided.

However, risks remain tilted to the downside for economic outlooks. While geopolitical tensions and trade fragmentation risks have eased somewhat, they remain elevated. Meanwhile, the risk of sharp market corrections and government fiscal vulnerabilities has increased. Monitoring economic data will be critical to assess whether resilience continues or if persistent external risks and volatility weigh more heavily on growth. 

Kate English, Chief Economist 

Fundamental and continuously evolving pressures are transforming the way organisations run key business operations. A changing risk and regulatory landscape, a shortage of specialist skills, and the emergence of new disruptive technologies means the way businesses operate today is not sustainable. Our clients are asking how they can reshape their operations to succeed in today's changing environment and focus their internal resources on what truly matters: activities that differentiate them in the market and drive both revenue and profit. 

• More organisations are turning to external partners to undertake activities that do not directly support their core mission. While outsourcing has long been part of this strategy, the traditional approach which focuses primarily on labour cost savings is no longer fit for purpose. While cost savings remain important, we have observed growing disillusionment with this approach. This stems from the growing overlap between the human and digital workforce and as generative AI shifts the cost-benefit equation away from simply moving work to lower-cost locations. Cost savings alone do not provide enough value. 
• To survive and thrive, organisations must consider new ways to engineer advantage and expect more from their partnerships. From cybersecurity and tax compliance to custom application creation, they need support not just to work differently but to simultaneously transform how their business operates in a way that integrates these efforts seamlessly. 

This transformation should ideally be a self-funding initiative that fuels growth, innovation, and lasting competitive advantage. The value delivered must go beyond cost savings or service-level agreements; it should be tangible and measurable, directly impacting business operations and aligned with strategic business goals and market performance. 

Simon Murphy, Partner, Technology & Transformation  

Attracting and retaining skilled and qualified employees is now the top business risk for CFOs. Yet, hiring remains cautious. This tells us that CFO's feel the talent risk, but the primary levers to address it are headcount and cost.

Looking at this from three perspectives - capability, capacity, and configuration - helps us to understand what to do next.

1. Capability: Global research suggests that roughly half of today's core skills will change within five years, with AI, data, and problem-solving capabilities in highest demand. Deloitte's recent Human Capital Trends Survey 2025 findings echo this, with many leaders doubting their recent hires are fully prepared for the work ahead. The question for finance is no longer ‘Can we hire?’ but ‘What capabilities do we need to build, buy, or borrow?’ and ‘How quickly’ to deliver business as usual priorities and a future-fit finance function.
2. Capacity: With headcount largely flat, productivity must carry more of the growth ambition. Finance is under pressure to role model, and often lead, the use of process simplification, automation, and AI to release human capacity from routine or low value activities and focus effort on adding increased business value. The aim is not to have fewer people, it’s to deliver more business impact per euro of people spend.
3. Configuration: The third lens is how finance organises the work. If scarce capability is spread too thinly across every business unit, or tied up in transactional activity, no amount of hiring or technology will move the dial.

CFOs have an opportunity to reshape the finance operating model by deciding what should be centralised and automated, where specialist Centres of Excellence should be located, how business partnering is resourced, and how tools and technologies are integrated into roles and workflows. Getting this configuration right is crucial to ensure that new skills and technologies scale across the entire organisation, rather than remaining isolated in pockets of good practice.

For finance leaders, talent risks become manageable when the perspectives of capability, capacity, and configuration are treated as one integrated investment rationale and not three separate conversations.

Lee Williams, Director, Technology & Transformation

In a world of rapid change and uncertainty, financial decisions are becoming more frequent and increasingly complex. Today’s CFOs are not only responsible for safeguarding organisational stability through insights into product portfolios, liquidity, and cost management, but they are also expected to guide strategic priorities, navigate emerging regulatory requirements, and support growth. 

To meet these expanding demands, CFOs require a clear and purposeful vision for finance. This direction shapes how the function maintains operational continuity while serving as a strategic partner and a catalyst for change. 

Amid technological disruption and growing demand for data, technology has become a central element of their strategy. We are witnessing more finance transformation programmes with technology at their core, such as ERP implementations aimed at modernising the finance system landscape. Typically, these programmes are perceived as technology-led, and a common challenge is the disconnect between technology, business processes, and the operating model. Organisations can unlock greater value from their ERP transformation journey when they are aligned with business objectives and when processes and technology are integrated seamlessly. 

By looking beyond technical functionality and considering the full ecosystem of policies, processes, controls, and data, finance can achieve far more. Through business-led ERP transformations, the finance function can establish a strong foundation for executing its strategy, act as a co-pilot for organisational transformation across areas such as supply chain and procurement and deliver the insights that unlock value and shape decision-making. 

Anthony Maher, Director, Finance Transformation