The Modern Finance Leader / AI Paradox

The AI Paradox: Finance Teams Are Investing in Tomorrow While Drowning in Yesterday's Work

Zuora’s survey of over 900 senior finance and accounting leaders, including CFOs, CAOs, Controllers, and VPs of Finance and Accounting, across North America (NA), the United Kingdom (UK), and France, reveals how breakdowns in order-to-cash processes and technology are impeding the strategic growth and efficiency of finance teams, particularly within SaaS companies.

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AI Adoption Priorities

Manual Workloads

Recommendations

AI Is A Strategic Priority—But Its Impact Has Yet To Fully Materialize

Finance and accounting leaders are caught in a peculiar contradiction. They’re racing to adopt AI technology while their teams remain buried under the very manual processes that AI should have eliminated. This isn’t just an implementation gap—it’s an order-to-cash (O2C) blindspot that could be costing organizations talent, efficiency, and competitive advantage.

The Investment-Reality Disconnect

Finance and accounting leaders have embraced AI as a strategic priority with remarkable consistency. Nearly all (93%) now say they prioritize AI capabilities when evaluating new financial technology investments. This isn’t just theoretical interest—89% report that AI solutions are already part of their current technology stack (Table 5). SaaS finance leaders place even more value in AI tech capabilities, with 68% saying it’s “very important,” compared to just 38% of leaders across industries. Currently, 85% of SaaS finance leaders report that their organizations have integrated AI tools into their operations (Table 5).

Yet despite this AI investment wave, the daily reality for finance teams tells a different story. A striking 79% of finance leaders report their teams remain “bogged down” by manual tasks. Half of all finance leaders (50%) identify manual errors as their most significant operational challenge (Table 5). The SaaS sector reveals an even more dramatic disconnect. While 85% have AI in their tech stack, 97% of SaaS finance leaders say manual O2C tasks still hold their teams back. Nearly 6 in 10 (59%) cite manual errors as a major operational challenge (Table 5).

Table 5

Talent Retention in the Age of AI

Finance and accounting leaders—particularly those in SaaS—clearly recognize AI’s importance for talent strategy amid an industry-wide talent shortage. With nearly 75% of CPAs reaching retirement age by 2020 and 87% of CFOs now reporting a shortage of finance and accounting talent, the urgency around automation has intensified. In this context, 61% of SaaS finance and accounting leaders say AI fluency is “very important” in the hiring process, compared to just 35% across industries (Table 6). This emphasis on AI skills represents more than efficiency—it’s a potential solution to an acute staffing crisis. The business case for AI adoption extends beyond efficiency to talent retention in a constrained market. Over half (55%) of SaaS finance leaders strongly agree that reducing manual work through automation directly improves talent retention.

With burnout around menial tasks cited as a key factor driving accountants to change careers, automation becomes critical for keeping existing talent engaged.

However, despite widespread AI investment, 97% of SaaS finance teams remain bogged down by manual tasks. This creates a troubling contradiction: organizations are investing heavily in automation technologies while their teams continue to experience the very manual work frustrations that drive talent away (Table 5).

For SaaS companies facing both rapid growth demands and severe talent constraints, the right automation strategy could be the key to closing the talent gap while scaling operations effectively.

Table 6

Finance Teams Are Drowning in Manual Work—97% of SaaS Finance Leaders Report Critical Impact

While finance leaders invest heavily in AI and automation technologies, their teams remain trapped in the very manual processes these tools were designed to eliminate. This disconnect reveals a critical gap between technological ambition and operational reality—one that’s particularly acute in fast-growing SaaS companies.

Manual Work Continues to Overwhelm Finance Teams

Finance and accounting teams across industries are struggling under the weight of manual processes, with the problem reaching critical levels in SaaS companies. A staggering 79% of finance leaders report that manual O2C tasks are overwhelming their teams, and in SaaS, this challenge is nearly universal—97% of leaders confirm that manual work is significantly hindering their operations, with 53% experiencing these disruptions “frequently” (Table 7).

Manual processes aren’t just time-consuming—they’re actively damaging business operations. Half of all finance leaders identify manual errors as their primary operational challenge (Table 7), followed closely by compliance issues (44%) and revenue leakage (40%). The stakes are particularly high in SaaS environments, where scaling the business tops the list of concerns at 68%, followed by manual errors (59%) and compliance challenges (55%).

Technology Gaps Fuel the Manual Work Overload

The root cause of this manual work overload becomes clear when examining the technology landscape. An overwhelming 68% of finance leaders report that underlying technology gaps limit their O2C effectiveness, forcing teams to rely on time-consuming manual processes to bridge these technological shortfalls (Table 7).

Meanwhile in SaaS, nearly every finance leader (96%) identifies tech gaps as a barrier to O2C success, directly contributing to the manual work burden that’s overwhelming their teams. More telling still, over half of these leaders (54%) characterize their technology gaps as “severe”—not minor inconveniences, but fundamental impediments to business function that perpetuate the cycle of manual work dependency (Table 7).

Table 7

The Bottom Line

Finance teams face a fundamental contradiction that threatens both operational efficiency and strategic growth. While organizations have invested heavily in AI and automation, the promised transformation has failed to materialize where it matters most—manual processes continue to overwhelm teams, creating the very conditions that drive talent away during an industry-wide staffing crisis. This isn’t simply an implementation problem, but a systemic failure of current technology to address foundational O2C processes. Organizations are caught in a cycle where AI investments coexist with manual work dependency, preventing the efficiency gains automation should deliver.

The stakes extend beyond efficiency to competitive advantage: companies that cannot automate foundational processes will struggle to retain talent, scale operations, or respond quickly to market demands as business complexity increases and talent shortages intensify.

Strategic Recommendations

Pilot and implement gradually

Begin with monthly exploration sessions where your team experiments with AI tools on past projects before integrating them into active workflows. This approach allows you to measure impact and refine processes before full deployment. 

Build internal capabilities

Update training materials to include automation and AI competencies, ensuring all team members complete relevant coursework. Consider embedding these skills into both hiring criteria and ongoing professional development to future-proof your operations.

Create innovation incentives

Challenge each team member to identify and automate one task that saves them an hour weekly. Reward successful automation with meaningful incentives such as flexible time off, professional development opportunities, or project leadership roles.

Conduct strategic assessments

Perform targeted audits of manual processes to identify high-impact automation opportunities. Additionally, benchmark your internal workload against industry standards to reassess whether your current technology investments are sufficient.

Frame technology as a strategic investment

Position automation and AI initiatives as strategic HR and organizational development efforts rather than purely operational improvements. This framing helps secure broader organizational support and resources. 

Establish long-term competency development

Integrate AI and automation skills deeply into your talent strategy, making these competencies core requirements for new hires and advancement opportunities within finance operations.  

Methodology

Zuora commissioned an independent research firm to survey 991 CFOs, CAOs, Controllers, and VPs of Finance and Accounting in a multi-national study in May 2025 across North America, the United Kingdom, and France about what’s driving success for accounting and financial planning. The margin of error for this total sample is +/- 2% at the 95% confidence level. Based on the survey findings, the report also includes strategic recommendations from Zuora to help overcome O2C technical gaps and improve processes.

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