Annual planning has always been an important opportunity to review past progress. But this year, the focus shifts to the future—and for finance, the future means deep integration of artificial intelligence (AI).

From marketing to operations to human resources, every department is evaluating where AI can create value, increase speed, reduce costs, or strengthen decision-making confidence. Finance is no exception. However, unlike other departments, finance is also being asked to measure AI's actual impact and prove that related investments can achieve the expected return on investment (ROI).

This is no easy task. Although chief financial officers and their teams face immense pressure to understand, scale, and deliver results in a work environment increasingly dominated by the AI boom, many are already overworked and exhausted by ever-growing requests. The problem has reached crisis levels:Half of finance and accounting leaders report symptoms of burnout。

Fortunately, AI is being introduced to assist finance and the broader business. But what is its actual impact? Which processes does it affect? Are employees ready? How do you balance workforce planning with AI investment? And what will it all cost?

Most companies have begun embracing AI and are now trying to quantify its ROI. But unlike traditional investments, AI does not follow a clear cost-benefit formula. Instead, it operates at the task level, not just the transaction level. Its value often shows up as efficiency gains, enhanced accuracy, or increased insight, rather than as simple revenue or expense items. This creates a unique challenge for finance: leadership expects results, but the KPIs for AI success are not always predefined or easy to measure.

Even though the AI ROI for many use cases is not yet clear, planning must proceed. This year, instead of looking back, create a forward-looking planning process that enables an AI-augmented workforce and incorporates new ways to track, model, and explain AI's business value.

AI changes how companies plan

AI is no longer a theoretical disruptor—it is actively reshaping business operations and shifting the tone of boardroom discussions from how AI "will" drive value to how AI "is" driving value. This shift brings new urgency and complexity to this year's planning season.

A McKinsey survey found thatnearly 80% of organizations are using AI regularly. Research also shows that teams consistently see revenue growth and cost reductions from AI, along with harder-to-quantify benefits such as insight, efficiency, and accuracy across numerous use cases.

The scope of AI use cases is expanding rapidly. Because AI can be applied in many ways across numerous processes, planning becomes more complex—especially when quantifying value, calculating ROI, and building models and forecasts for the broader business. As a result, finance is stepping into a more strategic role, involving modeling investments in AI tools, estimating benefits, and helping leadership understand which impacts are real and which still need validation.

However, because AI is relatively new, few companies have years of historical ROI data to guide AI decisions. Finance therefore needs to plan for a leaner, AI-augmented workforce and expect AI tools to fill any gaps. How to allocate between AI investment and human effort, and which KPIs best indicate that AI is working as intended, are gray areas. Many CFOs are defining new KPIs to capture the value of AI's indirect benefits, such as accuracy, agility, and insight. They are also evolving finance's approach to planning, forecasting, and performance measurement to reflect this new reality.

Not people or AI, but people plus AI

As AI continues to permeate the business, it is easy to fall into either-or thinking: invest in people or invest in technology. But the real opportunity lies in combining the two—augmenting the workforce with AI to unlock qualitative and quantitative value across the business.

For example, simply eliminating 10 hours of work per employee per week enables them to accomplish more and improve quality, regardless of department. It also gives them more time for strategic decision-making, critical thinking, and further improving processes or outcomes. A high-performing, appropriately sized workforce equipped with the right technology creates more value per dollar invested.

Your planning opportunity lies in balancing AI impact with workforce optimization. Collaboration between finance and business units helps identify high-impact AI use cases and drive the right outcomes as planned. Collaboration also helps prioritize necessary technology upgrades, reskilling and upskilling, workforce redeployment, and other people-related needs.

When engaging with business leaders, let them answer many of the questions about how AI creates value for their teams. This improves AI literacy across finance and the entire organization. Finance can take the lead in planning meetings by asking the following questions:

  • How is your department planning for AI-driven efficiency gains?
  • What outcomes do you expect from these changes?
  • How will AI's value show up in the income statement, balance sheet, or cash flow?
  • Which metrics matter most right now (e.g., cost to serve, revenue per employee)?
  • What new metrics can we start tracking (e.g., AI adoption rate, forecast accuracy)?

Given this focus on metrics—especially new ones—this planning season is a great time to create shared dashboards to track AI investment and impact. As they say, what gets measured gets managed, and focusing on AI's value and ownership is a reliable strategy for driving success.

A new toolkit for finance to accelerate AI impact

To effectively adapt to this new "people + AI" equation, finance needs the right tools to lead the business into the next phase of transformation.

Outdated workforce planning tools and siloed systems often slow down the generation of necessary reports, forecasts, and other insights. This is counterproductive because finance is being asked to move faster. Additionally, any collaboration friction, dashboard limitations, and data integration gaps can heighten frustration.

Modern workforce planning solutions enable finance to easily collaborate with HR and business units to:

  • Accurately forecast AI-driven productivity and capacity gains
  • Coordinate talent and technology investments across teams and business units
  • Identify roles that need automation, upskilling, or evolution

When everyone works together on the same platform with shared data, it is easier to develop effective workforce plans while maintaining flexibility to adjust people and investments as clarity on AI's business value emerges.

Combining financial planning with workforce planning closes the loop with speed, accuracy, and confidence, enabling you to move beyond manual, spreadsheet-based financial performance management. You gain more time to focus on growth by:

  • Determining which AI investments should receive strategic funding
  • Using scenario modeling to forecast AI's financial impact
  • Measuring results against KPIs and strategic outcomes

Instead of manually finding, tracking, and reporting AI metrics, the right tools automatically track cycle times, error reduction, hours saved, employee satisfaction, and more—across finance and the broader business.

Better planning today maximizes AI's value tomorrow

If properly equipped, finance can take the lead in helping the business understand and scale AI's impact. This involves monitoring leading indicators, creating an AI scorecard owned by finance, incorporating quantitative and qualitative metrics, and including indirect returns—such as increased agility, faster decision-making, and improved cross-functional coordination—in AI's broader ROI narrative.

To realize AI's potential, finance must adopt a more holistic planning approach that integrates people and technology. However, if you are weighed down by inefficient tools and outdated strategies, you cannot help the rest of the business benefit from AI. To create a planning process fit for the AI era, start with these steps:

  1. Use the metrics above as a guide to build your AI ROI framework.
  2. Modernize your workforce and financial planning tools so finance has the time, insight, and confidence to act decisively.
  3. Track the right metrics that matter to your business on a shared platform that provides reports, dashboards, and guidance trusted by decision-makers.

This year, make AI an integral part of the planning process. With modern tools and teams aligned around shared metrics, finance can lead the business in unlocking AI's exciting full potential—across the entire enterprise.