How AI Is Reshaping the CFO Role in FMCG
For the past year, AI has been one of the hottest topics of conversation, especially in the workplace. Yet there is still a striking gap at the centre of the AI conversation in finance. According to the Journal of Accoutancy, close to 60% of finance teams are piloting or fully implementing AI projects, yet only 7% of CFOs report a strong impact from that investment. At the same time, Deloitte found that 87% of CFOs expect AI to be extremely or very important to their finance operations in 2026, while SolveXia says 95% of finance leaders are already investing in AI.
So it’s clear that the intent is there. But the return, in many cases, is still catching up. That tension matters even more in FMCG, as these are businesses where margins are exposed to input costs, promotional pressure, channel mix, working capital swings, and fast-moving demand signals.
The Scale-Up Finance Gap
Marketeers Research argues that 2025 was a turning point for FMCG analytics, with capability improving faster than commercial teams’ ability to act on it. Meanwhile, FP&A Trends found that 46% of FP&A time is still spent on data collection and validation rather than analysis, and SolveXia reports that 80% of finance executives have implemented or are planning to implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA), with 92% saying it has improved compliance.
That is why FMCG finance sits at the sharp end of this shift. In many consumer businesses, finance teams are still spending too much time cleaning spreadsheets, reconciling disconnected systems, and trying to build a coherent view of profitability across products, retailers, channels, and geographies.
This is exactly where AI and automation can help, especially in demand forecasting, anomaly detection, reporting workflows, and scenario planning. In fact, McKinsey says AI-driven forecasting can reduce supply-chain errors by between 20%-50%, while BCG says AI-enabled planning can make forecasts 20% to 40% more accurate and planning cycles 30% faster.
The pressure is even sharper for VC- and PE-backed challenger brands. Before their first truly senior finance hire, many of these businesses are operating with a patchwork of spreadsheets, basic finance support, and limited visibility into cash and gross margin by SKU or channel. Scaleup Finance says nearly 50 million SMEs globally still lack a proper finance function, and Fortune recently reported that the virtual CFO market is projected to grow from $4.7 billion in 2026 to more than $10 billion by 2035, reflecting how large that gap has become.
What’s actually working for real-world FMCG businesses
That explains why AI-native finance tools aimed at consumer brands are gaining attention. Iris Finance raised $6.2 million to build what it calls an AI-native CFO platform for CPG brands, built around a familiar pain point: businesses with multiple products, different margin profiles, and dozens of sales channels struggling to understand profitability in real time. The push here is about giving lean teams faster visibility on what is actually happening, rather than replacing finance operations.
There are credible examples of AI working already. For example, Unilever has described how AI is improving demand planning and inventory decisions in its ice cream business, helping it respond to changing weather patterns, optimise stock, and reduce waste across a highly seasonal supply chain. Nestlé also says that its internal GenAI tool, NesGPT, is saving employees an average of 45 minutes a week with practical gains from faster analysis, better planning, and less manual work.
The counter-narrative
Even so, the honest counterpoint matters. There is still no single must-have AI tool that every finance team runs on. Phil Sharp of Subscript said, “Honestly, there’s no killer app yet,” and the Journal of Accountancy’s recent reporting makes the same broader point: adoption is running ahead of realised value. The finance teams seeing results are usually starting with one specific problem, such as close-cycle bottlenecks, cash forecasting, or error detection, rather than trying to “AI-enable” everything at once.
Talent implications for the CFO/FD role
That is why the CFO role is changing so much. IMD argues that decisions which once took weeks of manual consolidation can now be explored in near real-time across broader datasets and more complex scenarios. Deloitte’s Finance Trends research found that 57% of finance leaders now play a lead role in shaping enterprise strategy. In other words, AI is not rewriting the CFO brief from scratch, it is intensifying it. The expectation is now that finance leaders can combine commercial judgment with systems fluency, data leadership, and the ability to turn faster outputs into better decisions.
That has clear hiring implications, as FMCG businesses do not need CFOs who can merely report the numbers after the fact. They need people who can work across ERP and FP&A systems, understand the difference between useful automation and expensive theatre, and connect margin, demand, pricing, and cash in one coherent view.
The tools worth knowing are increasingly practical rather than exotic, like NetSuite and Oracle in ERP, platforms like Drivetrain, Vena, Cube, Numeric, and Aleph in FP&A, and lighter automation tools across workflow and reporting. Spendesk highlights Drivetrain’s conversational scenario modelling as a good example of where this is heading.
What is means for the talent market
There is also a caution on talent. Datarails’ survey of 270 US CFOs found that 57% expect finance teams to shrink by 2026 because of AI. That may happen in some areas, but the stronger signal is about changing skill mix rather than simply reducing headcount. In FMCG, where complexity sits across supply chain, channel margin, and working capital, the value of a CFO or FD who can ask better questions of the tools is rising faster than the value of someone who simply has access to them.
The real shift, then, is from operator to strategist. Finance leaders in FMCG are still responsible for control, cash, and accuracy. But increasingly, they are also expected to shape pricing decisions, guide investment, stress-test scenarios in real time, and help the business move faster with more confidence. The technology is improving, but the quality of judgment around it is still where the value sits.
If you are hiring a CFO in an FMCG business and want help finding someone who can combine commercial leadership with genuine technology fluency, get in touch with Alice Friel ([email protected]) at Harmonic.
