2026: Stop debating. Start executing.
Finance hit pause in 2025. The pause ends now. Project Greenlight, a new report from CFO Alliance, calls 2026 "the most pivotal year the finance function has faced in a decade." Nick Araco, CEO of CFO Alliance, frames the mandate clearly: replace debate with data and execution-"informed execution."
The message is blunt: decisions stalled last year; risk didn't. In 2026, finance leaders either move plans into production or watch value erode while others do.
The four execution risks to manage first
- Geopolitical and regulatory disruption: Policies, tariffs, and sanctions that swing cost and supply overnight.
- Technology and AI adoption: Investment choices, model risk, data readiness, and scale.
- Talent and team capabilities: Skill gaps in accounting, FP&A, data, and automation.
- Stakeholder alignment and governance: Misaligned incentives that stall or reverse progress.
These are the reasons plans die in committee. Treat them as blockers to clear, not topics to discuss.
The AI adoption brief every CFO should use
Araco says the conversation has shifted from "experiment" to "enterprise value." Use this simple brief in every AI discussion so you can tie action to outcomes:
- What specific opportunity or pain point are we addressing?
- Why does this matter now?
- What's blocking progress today?
- What's the one condition that, if solved, changes the outcome by a clear date?
- How will we measure that it helped (baseline, target, owner)?
Track ROI with measures that hit the P&L and balance sheet: close-cycle time, forecast accuracy, error rate, working-capital turns, cost to serve, revenue per FTE, cash conversion, and customer churn/retention. Set baselines now, commit to targets, and review monthly.
Build a high-performing finance function (and yes, make accounting "sexy" again)
Three questions keep coming up with leaders: What kind of leader will I be in '26? How do I stand up a top-tier finance function across accounting, treasury, FP&A, and strategy? Am I ahead of AI and tech shifts-or reacting late?
Araco is done with the accounting jokes. No one in finance succeeds without a strong accounting core. Bring AI and critical thinking into the accounting toolkit: speed, accuracy, and better judgment can live in the same sentence.
Your 90-day execution plan
- Baseline the core: Close time, forecast error, days sales outstanding, inventory turns, AP cycle, cost to serve.
- Prioritize AI use cases: Rank by impact and effort (e.g., reconciliations, anomaly detection, cash forecasting, contract review).
- Data readiness: Map systems, define golden sources, fix access and quality issues that block automation.
- Governance: Set model risk guidelines, privacy and compliance checks, and approval paths for deployment.
- Capability build: Upskill accounting and FP&A on prompt craft, data literacy, and tool usage. Pair analysts with engineers.
- Quick wins: Pilot two use cases with measurable outcomes in 6-8 weeks; scale if targets are hit.
- Vendor controls: Lock SLAs, security reviews, and exit clauses before committing spend.
- Stakeholder map: Align CEO, COO, CIO, CHRO, and business unit leads on objectives and incentives.
- Execution cadence: Weekly standups, monthly value reviews, quarterly reallocation of budget to winners.
Risk radar for 2026 planning
- Geopolitical/regulatory: Pre-build scenarios with triggers and playbooks; run-sensitivity on tariffs, rates, and energy.
- Tech/AI: Inventory models, owners, and controls; adopt an AI risk framework (e.g., NIST AI RMF) to avoid avoidable surprises. NIST AI Risk Management Framework
- Talent: Shape roles for automation, not against it; hire for curiosity, systems thinking, and communication.
- Governance: Tie compensation to execution KPIs; clarify decision rights so "no" and "go" are both fast.
A CFO's 2026 scorecard
- Cash: +2 turns in working capital; faster cash conversion by 10%.
- Accuracy: Forecast error down 30-50% in material drivers.
- Speed: Monthly close cut by 30-40% without adding headcount.
- Cost: Cost to serve down 5-10% via process and automation.
- Growth: Revenue per FTE up; faster pricing and product analytics cycles.
- Risk: Documented AI controls; zero material audit findings tied to models or data.
If you need a sanity check on value pools for AI, this summary remains useful: McKinsey: Economic potential of generative AI.
Practical resources
Bottom line
2026 is execution year. Pick the few moves that change value, kill the noise, and measure like an operator. Debate is over; outcomes are the only language that counts.
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