Five Key Takeaways From the 2022 Gartner CFO and Finance Executive Conference

What you’ll learn


  • We identified 30 key trends from Gartner’s 2022 CFO and Finance Executive Conference in our “30 Trends For 2030” report. The following blog post highlights the top five.

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CFOs are today expected to serve as an architect in leading enterprise-wide transformation efforts, while also managing macro economic pressures such as rising inflation, supply chain problems and a tightening labor market among other things.

Navigating these challenges requires CFOs to offer real-time, predictive and accurate insights that can help their organizations make the right decisions without compromising on profitability. Unfortunately, few CFOs today run finance teams that are equipped with the right tools and technologies that can help create value and deliver on their organization’s technology roadmap.

The situation is fairly dire. In a Gartner’s survey of 200 CFOs, 0% of the survey respondents said that their teams were focussed on value creation. Here’s another shocking stat: Less than four out of 10 CFOs said that they have a roadmap for digital transformation.

So, what are CFOs to do? How should they lead digital growth and prepare their company’s business for an autonomous future? And perhaps more importantly, how should they build an effective technology roadmap with the latest innovations in finance? These are some of the questions Gartner sought to answer at its two day Gartner CFO and Finance Executive Conference, which was held at the National Harbor in Maryland on June 6 and June 7, 2022.

The two day conference covered a wide variety of topics, ranging from the path to autonomous finance to how CFOs can best retain talent. Here are five of the top 30 trends that we learned from attending the conference.

The future of finance is autonomous 

Autonomous finance is about giving more independence to humans and using technology to increase their productivity. Most CFOs today believe that autonomous finance will become a reality in just the next five to six years. Yet, few CFOs are today laying the groundwork for it, with only 29% spending their personal time on learning about technologies for autonomous finance. Businesses that fail to keep pace with industry leaders that are accelerating toward autonomous finance risk falling behind.

Accounting close continues to be a key pain point

Autonomous finance is about giving more independence to humans and using technology to increase their productivity. Most CFOs today believe that autonomous finance will become a reality in just the next five to six years. Yet, few CFOs are today laying the groundwork for it, with only 29% spending their personal time on learning about technologies for autonomous finance. Businesses that fail to keep pace with industry leaders that are accelerating toward autonomous finance risk falling behind.

Scenario planning – it’s not worth it without tech

Autonomous finance is about giving more independence to humans and using technology to increase their productivity. Most CFOs today believe that autonomous finance will become a reality in just the next five to six years. Yet, few CFOs are today laying the groundwork for it, with only 29% spending their personal time on learning about technologies for autonomous finance. Businesses that fail to keep pace with industry leaders that are accelerating toward autonomous finance risk falling behind.

Collaboration between CFOs and CIOs matters

Autonomous finance is about giving more independence to humans and using technology to increase their productivity. Most CFOs today believe that autonomous finance will become a reality in just the next five to six years. Yet, few CFOs are today laying the groundwork for it, with only 29% spending their personal time on learning about technologies for autonomous finance. Businesses that fail to keep pace with industry leaders that are accelerating toward autonomous finance risk falling behind.

Building a CoE for the long haul

Autonomous finance is about giving more independence to humans and using technology to increase their productivity. Most CFOs today believe that autonomous finance will become a reality in just the next five to six years. Yet, few CFOs are today laying the groundwork for it, with only 29% spending their personal time on learning about technologies for autonomous finance. Businesses that fail to keep pace with industry leaders that are accelerating toward autonomous finance risk falling behind.

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HighRadius Autonomous Accounting Application consists of End-to-end Financial Close Automation, AI-powered Anomaly Detection and Account Reconciliation, and Connected Workspaces. Delivered as SaaS, our solutions seamlessly integrate bi-directionally with multiple systems including ERPs, HR, CRM, Payroll, and banks. Autonomous Accounting proactively identifies errors as they happen, provides the project management specifically designed for month end close to manage, monitor, and document the successful completion of tasks, including posting adjusting journal entries, and provides a document repository to support each month’s close process and support the financial audit.