The new context: Accelerated change and new workforce expectations shaping the future

We live in an era of speed. Automation and AI are not distant possibilities; they’re active forces changing how finance operates.

• Automation and AI are reshaping routine work. Data preparation, reconciliations, transaction processing, and much of financial reporting will be increasingly automated. That reduces low-value manual work—and raises expectations for faster, more reliable outputs.
• AI augments decision-making. It’s becoming a partner for analysis, forecasting, and risk insights, supplying predictive inputs that help finance teams act earlier and with more confidence.
• Human judgment will remain essential. Relationship management, ethics, strategy, and complex stakeholder decisions are hard to automate. Those roles will be augmented—not replaced.

At the same time, workforce demands are also evolving. What professionals want from work is changing. Compensation remains critical—it’s the top reason finance professionals say they would leave a job, but it’s not the chief reason they choose one¹. People care about development, meaningful work, recognition, and flexibility.² When you combine these internal expectations with external change, a few things are clear: Leaders must listen to their teams, adapt their talent strategy, and create a work experience that supports both work performance and human needs.

Some problems finance leaders face: Stress, shortages, and motivation gaps

Three quick reality checks to consider that should shape any workforce plan:

• Roughly two-thirds (66%) of CFOs and finance leaders and teams report high stress from constantly shifting priorities, which erodes focus and performance. A remedy to consider is less busyness and more stagility—stable anchors that enable rapid pivots without burning people out.³
• Many CFOs (and their finance teams) are seeing significant talent shortages. That means sourcing strategies must be paired with internal development and smarter knowledge capture.⁴
• Tailored development plans work. Most workers who receive learning paths aligned to their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations show higher engagement and performance.⁵

These may be operational barriers to running a modern controllership function with a thriving and dynamic workforce. Address them, and you may be better able to unlock the capacity to thrive with a future-ready workforce and successful controllership function.

The future of finance talent is ‘dynamic’

If you had to give the finance team of the future a one-word identity, it could likely be dynamic. But what does that mean in practice?

A future-ready finance function is:

• Touchless where possible. Routine transactions and reconciliations are largely automated.
• Real time and on demand. Finance delivers information when the business needs it.
• Focused, but agile. Centralized for efficiency, yet flexible to support decentralized decision-making.
• Strategic, not transactional. Time formerly spent on manual tasks is spent on insight and partnership.
• Integrated with operations and IT. Finance, ops, and systems owners work as one.
• Efficient with processes and resources. Data and management are at the core.
• Predictive and fortified. Forecasting, scenario planning, and early-warning systems are baked into the workflow.

The people powering this multifaceted future workforce are:

• Skilled today and prepared for tomorrow. They understand accounting fundamentals and the new skills the business needs.
• Tech-savvy. They can leverage automation and analytics and translate tech outputs into business decisions and innovative ways of working.
• Resilient and adaptive. They handle change, ambiguity, and renewed priorities without losing momentum.

Knowing this, expectations and skills will continue to evolve. It is estimated that 44% of finance worker core skills will evolve by 2030.⁶ That means finance leaders need to put skill agility, not static job descriptions, at the center

of their workforce plans for the future.

Creating a workforce strategy that aligns with the future of finance talent

To assess the skills you need to succeed, think critically about your options and talent strategy across dimensions to shift toward a dynamic and adaptable finance organization. When you assess how to assemble the right mix of capabilities, consider four options:

• Build – Invest in upskilling and reskilling for high-cost or mission-critical capabilities that are hard to buy. This is for skills you want embedded long term.
• Buy – Recruit externally for stable skills that are available on the market and critical now.
• Borrow – Tap contingent talent, cross-functional rotations, or partnerships for nascent, fast-evolving skills that you need quickly but not permanently.
• Bot – Use automation and AI to replace tasks that no longer require human judgment, freeing people for higher-value work.

Turning insights into action: Concrete moves for finance leaders

Designing a workforce strategy for the future is less about theory and more about deliberate choices you can measure. Here are some practical considerations to take to help drive a future finance talent strategy:

1. Start with a clear vision. Define what success looks like for controllership in 18 to 36 months. Faster close cycles? Fewer manual reconciliations? More proactive risk reporting? The answers determine the skills you prioritize to align with your desired business outcomes.
2. Map skills, not jobs. Inventory the skills you currently have and the skills you’ll need. Identify gaps and match them to the build/buy/borrow/bot framework.
3. Create tailored talent plans. Move beyond one-size-fits-all training. Build individualized paths that align with people’s motivations—both intrinsic (meaningful work, growth) and extrinsic (compensation, recognition).
4. Invest in leader development. Controllers and finance leaders need to be fluent in tech, change management, and coaching. Effective finance leadership development programs should blend core competencies and technical skills development with more enduring human capabilities, empathy, and communication.
5. Design for stagility. Provide stable processes and clear priorities, while retaining the ability to shift quickly. This helps reduce stress and improve performance under changing conditions and constant transformation.
6. Measure what matters. Track skills, time freed by automation, engagement scores, and business outcomes tied to finance insights. Use these metrics to implement a new workforce strategy.
7. Implement strategic initiatives that drive the talent vision. Consider a center of excellence, recognition and impact programs, and new credentials for upskilling or reskilling.