While industry nuances matter, several themes are consistently emerging across sectors. Two in particular stand out: technology-enabled transformation and data as a foundational strategic asset.
Technology is redefining the controllership mandate
Across industries, controllership teams are rethinking how work gets done.
Automation is no longer a future-state ambition. It’s actively reshaping core processes today. Organizations are leveraging emerging technologies to:
- Reduce the cost and cycle time of the close;
- Minimize manual intervention in routine activities;
- Enhance audit readiness and control environments; and
- Strengthen decision support through real-time insights.
But the real shift isn’t just automation—it’s augmentation.
In life sciences, for example, organizations are increasingly deploying automation to remove repetitive tasks like reconciliations and recurring journal entries. More notably, there’s growing momentum around Generative AI (GenAI) for everyday tasks, with use cases ranging from contract analysis to narrative reporting.
In the consumer sector, the focus is slightly different but equally transformative. Here, controllership teams are exploring AI to respond to rapidly changing market conditions by using it to detect anomalies, generate insights, and improve forecasting accuracy.
What’s becoming clear across both industries is that technology alone isn’t the answer. Leading organizations are pairing tools with talent to augment human tasks—embedding data scientists and analysts within the finance function to help unlock the full value of these capabilities.
The implication for controllership is significant: The function is evolving from just processes and reporting of financial information to being a generator of forward-looking insight.
Data is the foundation—and the bottleneck
If technology is the engine, data is the fuel. And right now, many organizations are running on suboptimal fuel tanks.
Across industries, many companies are investing heavily in:
- Standardizing data definitions and dimensions;
- Harmonizing fragmented system landscapes; and
- Scaling data processing capabilities.
The objective is clear: Create a consistent, reliable data foundation that enables better analytics, faster decisions, and more effective use of advanced technologies like AI.
In the consumer space, this challenge is particularly heightened. Retailers, for instance, often struggle to measure their true cost-to-serve across channels and customer segments. Without a clear view of cost drivers, efforts to grow revenue can inadvertently erode margins.
Organizations that are getting this right are taking a broader approach—integrating operational and financial data to better understand end-to-end service costs and improve profitability at a granular level.
In life sciences, the focus is on building a strong master data foundation. Standardized data isn’t just a governance but a prerequisite for scaling innovation. Without it, even the most advanced AI tools can fall short. By aligning data standards and harmonizing systems, companies can enhance their agility and empower teams to quickly adapt to the evolving landscape.
The takeaway? Data strategy is no longer an IT concern—it’s a controllership priority.
What this means for finance leaders
These trends are already reshaping expectations for controllership.
Today’s finance leaders are being asked to:
- Deliver faster, more accurate reporting;
- Provide deeper, more actionable insights;
- Strengthen controls in increasingly complex environments; and
- Enable the business, not just monitor it.
Meeting these expectations requires more than just incremental improvement. It calls for a deliberate shift in how controllership operates. Controllers should be proactive and work to turn insight into action.
Turning insight into action: Where to start
So where should controllership teams focus?
While priorities will vary by industry, a few universally helpful moves are emerging.
- Start with high-impact use cases: Focus on specific processes where automation or AI can drive measurable value—like close acceleration, reconciliations, or anomaly detection.
- Invest in data foundations early: Standardizing data and aligning systems may not be glamorous, but it’s essential.
- Rethink the talent model: The future of controllership isn’t just about accountants. It’s hybrid teams that blend finance, data, and technology expertise.
- Embed analytics into the workflow: Move beyond static reporting. Integrate analytics directly into core processes to enable real-time decision-making.
- Align transformation to business outcomes: Technology initiatives should be tied to clear business objectives, whether that’s reducing risk, improving profit, or enabling growth.
Controllership is at an inflection point. The convergence of technology, data, and evolving business demands is creating a unique opportunity to redefine the function—not just as a steward of financial integrity, but as a business partner and driver of enterprise value. While the trends shaping a new controllership vary across a wide range of industries, Deloitte’s industry 5x5s can help finance leaders navigate this complexity. But insight alone isn’t enough. The organizations that will lead are those that can translate trends into action now to drive more value across the controllership landscape.
