Chief financial officers (CFOs) have dramatically changed their approach to artificial intelligence (AI) in 2025, according to research from Salesforce, which has majored on agentic AI since its Dreamforce conference in September 2024.
CFOs have shifted from being cautious spenders to “strategic investors who are betting on AI not just for cost-cutting, but as a crucial engine for long-term revenue growth”, according to the Salesforce researchers.
Nevertheless, security or privacy threats and the long time to return on investment (ROI) remain bugbears for 66% and 56% of CFOs, respectively.
One respondent said: “Other technology does not typically involve the ethical risks AI does; if AI goes wrong, the reputational cost affects ROI in ways regular tools never would.” Another said: “The ongoing investment required for retraining, monitoring and improving AI models makes ROI more fluid than for fixed-function tools.”
The research was conducted among 261 CFOs from 24 countries across North America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific by a Salesforce research team in tandem with online survey company Morning Consult.
According to the survey, 70% of the 261 global CFOs surveyed reported having had a conservative AI strategy in 2020, and now that number is 4%.
Some 61% of the CFOs said AI agents, which function autonomously and so can perform specific tasks independently without the need for human intervention, are changing how they evaluate ROI. The CFOs said they now look at broad business outcomes rather than traditionally narrow metrics, according to the researchers.
Salesforce defines autonomous agents as “digital labour”. Its Digital labour trends survey, published earlier this year, found that a staggering 78% of UK organisations were already using agentic AI, as opposed to generative AI, which requires human prompting.
Robin Washington, president and chief operational and financial Officer at Salesforce, said: “The introduction of digital labour isn’t just a technical upgrade, it represents a decisive and strategic shift for CFOs.
The introduction of digital labour isn’t just a technical upgrade, it represents a decisive and strategic shift for CFOs Robin Washington, Salesforce
“With AI agents, we’re not merely transforming business models, we’re fundamentally reshaping the entire scope of the CFO function. This demands a new mindset as we expand beyond financial stewards to also become architects of agentic enterprise value.”
One of the CFOs surveyed said: “The ROI of older technology often depends on immediate, measurable results, while AI’s returns may accrue over the long term through an ongoing process and new business models.”
Another respondent said: “Traditional technology investments mainly focus on immediate financial returns that can be easily visible, but AI benefits are a mix of long- and short-term duration. Key performance indicators are focused on business outcomes.”
The research found that CFOs are apportioning one-quarter of their AI budget to specifically agentic AI.
Rebalancing risk and reward
In support of its view, Salesforce cited data from the Financial Education and Research Foundation’s (FERF) 2025 Financial executives priorities report that said nearly four in 10 (38%) finance chiefs were undecided about the risks and benefits of AI investments for finance operations in 2025. That has changed, in Salesforce’s view. Its research, in August 2025, indicates 61% of CFOs say AI agents/digital labour are critical, and will continue to be critical, to compete in the current economic environment.
Some 64% said AI agents/digital labour are changing their perspective on how their business spends money, and 35% said AI demands of them a riskier mindset with respect to technology investments.
The research also depicts CFOs as seeing AI as a means to boost sales as well as cut costs, with 74% of those who are implementing agents expecting them to boost revenue by one-fifth over their next financial year.
The top three tasks CFOs are delegating to AI agents are risk assessments (74%), financial forecasting (58%) and expense management (54%). Some 55% think AI agents will take on more strategic work than routine tasks, and 72% say AI agents will transform their business model.
One respondent said: “AI provides real-time budget tracking, which improves forecasting accuracy and helps protect ROI from overspending through better financial control.”
