UK and Ireland finance leaders feel pressured to adopt AI faster

Around 82% of UK and Ireland finance leaders feel under pressure to adopt AI faster than they are comfortable with 

AccountsIQ research finds 81% of them trust what AI produces, and the pressure is highest in Ireland

More than four in five (82%) finance leaders in the UK and Ireland say they feel under pressure to adopt AI in their finance function faster than they are currently comfortable with, according to new research from AccountsIQ. 

 The CFO Mindset 2026 research, conducted by Censuswide among 1,036 finance leaders in the UK and Ireland, found that 41% describe the pressure as significant, which suggests it is shaping how many teams plan their AI work, from which processes they automate first to how quickly they commit budget. 

The pressure is highest in Ireland, where 91.5% of finance leaders feel it, against 80.3% in the UK. Put another way, more than nine in ten Irish finance leaders feel the pressure to move faster than they would choose – this makes the discomfort close to universal in that market. 

The pressure sits alongside high trust in the technology. Some 81% of finance leaders say they fully or mostly trust AI-driven outputs in finance processes. With trust that high, the discomfort they describe sits with the speed of adoption. Finance leaders broadly accept what AI produces. The open question for many of them appears to be how quickly to move and what needs to be in place first.

Darren Cran, CEO of AccountsIQ said: “Finance leaders are being asked to move on AI at the speed of the conversation around it. The discussion of AI starts in the boardroom and the press, and finance is expected to have an answer. Most finance leaders already trust what AI produces, so the hesitation sits with how quickly they can bring it in with the controls they need.”  

“In finance, controls mean knowing where a number came from and who approved it. Those take time to put in place, and a fast timetable can leave little room for them. Adopting at a pace that can be explained to a board, and its auditors makes the later questions easier to answer.” 

Concern centres on dependence. Some 76% say they are concerned that their organisation could become overly reliant on AI in finance decision-making, which suggests many want a person kept in the loop as adoption speeds up. A figure in finance can be questioned by a board or an auditor months after it was produced; so many leaders appear to want any AI output to come with a clear account of how it was reached.   

“Three in four are concerned about becoming over-reliant on AI. It is a sensible instinct in finance, where every figure must be explained to a board or an auditor. AI can speed up a great deal of finance work, from coding transactions to spotting anomalies, but a person still must stand behind the result. Tools that show how a result was reached and keep a person in the approval chain make that easier to do. AI works best in finance when the team sets the pace and a person stays accountable for each output,” concluded Cran.