Deloitte CFO survey: unpredictable playing field for CFOs; AI and digitalisation seem to be the answer

Amsterdam, 27 November 2025

Dutch CFOs find themselves in a dynamic and unpredictable playing field, but show cautious optimism. CFOs are committed to increasing productivity, reducing costs and achieving growth, while investing in digitalisation and AI, although the required budgets remain limited for the time being. This is evident from the latest edition of the semi-annual Deloitte CFO Survey, which maps the sentiment of Dutch CFOs around strategic priorities and macroeconomic developments. This autumn edition highlights five themes that make up the CFO agenda: the economic outlook, digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI), risk management, sustainability and the changing role of the CFO.
 

Key findings

• 70 per cent of CFOs expect revenue to increase in the next 12 months, while many of them are also pricing in workforce reductions.
• Revenue growth is driven by digitalisation, automation and pricing strategies, rather than increased sales volume due to staff growth. Many European companies have a strategic focus on 'doing more with less'.
• Priorities for the next 12 months: organic growth (26 per cent) and cost reduction (20 per cent). Further priorities include reducing OPEX (12 per cent), expanding into new markets (11 per cent), acquisitions and product launches (around 10 per cent each).
• Service and technology-focused companies are best positioned to increase revenue through productivity gains while reducing headcount, largely through automation and AI adoption. Many manufacturing companies, on the other hand, are seeing weaker revenue prospects and may reduce staff to focus on stabilising operations. For CFOs, the implications are clear: align talent, pricing and investment choices with the dynamics of the industry and the time horizon for which the company is seeking returns.
• Digitalisation and AI: Around 90 per cent of respondents report that AI currently supports up to 25 per cent of strategic decisions; the "current reality" is around 5 per cent in terms of usage, according to the CFOs. Still, more than a third expect AI to support more than half of strategic decisions within five years.
• AI is here to stay, but budgets are not yet catching up with expectations. Data, governance, reskilling and talent will determine whether the AI transformation can scale to sustainable productivity gains.
• More than 80 percent of organisations intend to spend less than a quarter of their technology and digitalisation budget on AI in the near future.
• Risk management: 40 per cent of CFOs see geopolitical risk as a significant threat to the business model — an increase from previous measurements — leading to the postponement of large capital projects and a preference for liquidity preservation and tactical, low-commitment investments.
• Role of the CFO: About 80 per cent of respondents report that the CFO's influence within the board of directors has increased over the past five years. At the same time, a shortage of data, digital and AI skills is a major barrier to transformation; more than half of CFOs identify shortages in these disciplines.

The results show a double effect: CFOs want to innovate and grow their business further, but do so while maintaining strict cost discipline and more attention to risk management.

"CFOs steer their organisations towards resilience, agility and digitalisation. The challenge now is to turn AI ambitions into measurable improvements by prioritising data, governance and talent," says Mohamed Bouker, CFO programme lead and partner at Deloitte Netherlands.

Research methodology

The Deloitte CFO Survey 2025, autumn edition, is based on interviews and surveys (100 respondents) among Dutch CFOs from different sectors and company sizes. The questions and analyses were prepared by Deloitte's Finance Transformation and CFO programme team in collaboration with external experts. The survey was conducted between 16 September and 17 October 2025.