Artificial intelligence (AI) is projected to become a mainstream finance and accounting tool, according to a recent Deloitte Center for Controllership poll. More than 8 in 10 (80.5%) polled finance and accounting professionals say AI-powered tools like AI agents and Generative AI (GenAI) chatbots could become standard tools for the profession within the next five years, while 14.8% say it could happen in less than 12 months.
Across all respondents, 42.7% agree that increased efficiency and productivity are the greatest benefits of using AI agents to support finance and accounting processes, with convictions even stronger among those whose organizations already use agentic AI (56.1%). Other benefits include enhanced data analysis and insights (26.3%) and improved accuracy and error reduction (12.4%).
Despite optimism about the future of AI, few organizations are currently using AI agents to support finance and accounting tasks. Just 13.5% of respondents say their organizations are already using agentic AI — although 33.6% say they are currently building or have future plans to adopt the technology. A further 7.6% of respondents do not know what an AI agent is.
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“There is significant momentum around agentic tools and their potential to transform finance functions,” said Jonathan Haynes, a Controllership and Treasury Transformation leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP. “However, it’s clear that barriers remain which are slowing adoption, particularly around building trust and honing talent. Addressing these concerns will be crucial in enabling organizations to realize the full potential of AI and unlock new levels of innovation and operational excellence.”
Trust is a key factor in agentic AI adoption and usage
Trust in agentic AI to support finance and accounting workflows — including the underlying data and programming of AI agents — emerged in the poll as the leading barrier to tool use (21.3%). Other challenges to agentic AI use include integration of AI into existing systems (20.1%) and lack of skilled personnel to operate AI agents (13.5%).
When asked specifically about the level of autonomy AI agents should have, 59.7% of respondents say they trust AI agents to make decisions only within a defined framework, while judgment calls should continue to be made by people. Very few (2.7%) say they trust AI agents to always make decisions inclusive of judgment calls, while 19.9% don’t trust the technology to make decisions in any capacity.
“Trust is the cornerstone of any successful AI implementation in finance and accounting,” said Court Watson, a Controllership & Treasury Transformation leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP. “While the potential benefits of agentic AI are immense, agentic tools are not perfect and require special safeguards to make them more trustworthy especially where financial statements and the users of them are concerned. Organizations should build trust into AI tools from inception, including establishing clear policies, processes, and controls throughout the AI lifecycle to identify risks and defining roles and responsibilities to guide the human management of AI agents.”
Deloitte’s Trustworthy AI™ framework provides seven principles to manage AI risks and improve user confidence and trust — transparent and explainable, fair and impartial, robust and reliable, respectful of privacy, safe and secure, and responsible and accountable. These AI governance principles are applied to the AI solutions Deloitte builds for clients as well as its own use of AI.
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