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Larger finance departments view their return on artificial intelligence as even less impactful than smaller ones do.
Despite enthusiastic investment in artificial intelligence, a Zuora survey of 321 U.S. finance and accounting decision-makers reveals that only 28% of finance teams using AI tools are currently experiencing a measurable financial impact. This is particularly notable given that 92% of the polled teams are already utilizing AI solutions in some capacity.
The disparity between AI investment and tangible outcomes is more pronounced in larger companies. While 100% of companies with at least 1,000 workers have invested in AI, a significant 72% of them have not seen a measurable financial impact, compared to 48% of smaller firms. Furthermore, larger companies are less optimistic, with 35% expecting AI to deliver measurable results in a year or more, versus 15% of smaller companies.
A substantial 87% of survey participants acknowledged a gap between AI’s promise and its practical reality in finance. The primary contributing factors cited include difficulties in integrating AI outputs into existing finance workflows (41%), challenges in embedding AI into processes requiring cross-functional collaboration (39%), and discrepancies when AI insights do not align with data in core finance systems (35%). Zuora emphasizes that if AI fails to meet standards of precision and traceability, it introduces risk rather than mitigating it.
Ninety-one percent of respondents expressed concerns about using AI for critical financial processes. The top three concerns are cybersecurity risks and data privacy (45%), insufficient human oversight (38%), and issues related to data quality, integrity, and reliability (36%). When asked about 'trustworthy AI,' over half (53%) of participants stated they would trust AI embedded directly within existing systems the most, highlighting a preference for integrated solutions over standalone or internally developed AI tools.