New survey data of Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) suggests finance leaders are interested in using artificial intelligence to automate workflows, but relatively few have adopted AI tools.
The CFO Survey, based on 106 completed responses collected in March 2026, found 75% of respondents said they were interested in using AI to automate finance workflows, while 25% reported currently using AI-enabled tools.
The findings point to what the survey describes as an “AI implementation gap”, with adoption lagging intent. The survey material attributes the gap to challenges around integration, governance and practical deployment.
Cost pressures were a prominent theme. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents selected rising costs and inflation as a major challenge, while 43% selected cash flow management. The survey also reported that three-quarters of respondents estimated manual, repetitive tasks account for 20–59% of their finance team’s time.
The results indicate varying levels of readiness by organisation size. Micro businesses with 1–19 employees were more likely to report low interest in AI automation (36%) than larger SMEs, with 7% of businesses with 20–99 employees and 4% of those with 100–199 employees reporting low interest.
Respondents reported widespread use of cloud accounting software (74%) and payroll or HR systems (56%), suggesting many SMEs have adopted core cloud systems even as AI tools remain less common.
When asked which topics they wanted more information on, respondents prioritised cash flow strategies and liquidity management (64%), AI and automation in finance (61%), and forecasting and scenario planning (50%).
The survey was conducted via Typeform and captured responses between 17 March 2026 and 24 March 2026. Respondents included CFOs, finance directors, finance managers and business owners or managing directors with finance responsibility across Australian SMEs.
