Finance has always been a numbers game, but the people crunching those numbers may soon look more like engineers than accountants. That’s the key takeaway from the new State of AI in FP&A report from Drivetrain, an AI-native business planning platform.

Based on a survey of 258 finance professionals, the report paints a picture of a profession caught mid-pivot: AI is everywhere, but transformation is uneven.

AI Use Is Common, But Still Superficial

A full 79% of FP&A teams are using AI today, but most deployments are what you’d politely call “surface-level.” Think: Excel automation, cleaner dashboards, or AI-assisted report formatting. Useful, sure—but not exactly the kind of thing that keeps CFOs up at night.

The real action, according to Drivetrain, is in how teams are gearing up for deeper adoption. CFOs and finance leaders are preparing to hire technical talent—roles like “AI analyst” or “AI systems expert”—that didn’t exist when today’s finance execs were climbing the ladder.

“For the first time in decades, the most critical new finance hires won’t have finance backgrounds,” said Alok Goel, CEO and co-founder of Drivetrain.ai. “They’ll have technical skills that barely existed when today’s CFOs started their careers.”

Key Data Points From the Report

• New talent priorities: AI analysts and AI systems experts are expected to become core team roles in the next 2–3 years.
• High optimism, low commitment: 90% of finance pros are bullish on AI, yet 65% spent less than five hours last month learning how to use it.
• Governance gaps: Just 28% of companies have formal AI usage policies, raising compliance and integrity risks.
• Tool trends: Generative AI—LLMs like ChatGPT and Google Gemini—powers 93% of current adoption, though AI-native finance tools are beginning to creep in.

What This Means for Finance Teams

The findings underscore a paradox: finance leaders love AI’s promise but haven’t yet reshaped workflows or governance to match their enthusiasm. That disconnect could spell trouble if compliance regulators—or the markets—decide to call their bluff.

At the same time, the report suggests a once-in-a-generation talent shift. Finance departments, historically a magnet for MBAs and CPAs, are starting to look more like data science hubs. It’s a trend that mirrors what’s already happened in marketing and operations, where analytics and automation talent often outrank domain expertise.

The Bigger Picture

Drivetrain isn’t alone in charting this shift. Competitors like Anaplan and Pigment are also weaving AI deeper into their platforms, betting that CFOs want more than just “Excel with bells on.” But while tools are advancing, adoption maturity lags.

As Drivetrain’s report frames it: experimentation is everywhere, transformation is rare. The gap between the two is widening, and the finance teams that invest in governance, upskilling, and purpose-built AI tools today will be tomorrow’s strategic leaders.

Or put another way: AI won’t replace your finance team, but it will radically change what your finance team looks like.