New analysis from Pleo, the European spend answer agency, has revealed that UK corporations are typically optimistic about enterprise efficiency in 2025, though they’ve raised issues about excessive ranges of stress as they navigate macroeconomic uncertainties.
The brand new Pleo report, The CFO’s Playbook for 2025, surveyed 500 UK monetary decision-makers and highlights the balancing act finance leaders face between optimism and rising financial pressures. Among the most notable challenges dealing with corporations embrace inflation (42 per cent), excessive power payments (36 per cent), and excessive enterprise taxes (35 per cent).
Pleo CFO, Søren Westh-Lonning feedback: “As we transfer into 2025, companies will proceed to face uncertainty. However studying to handle uncertainties requires monetary stability, not monetary guesswork. To stay aggressive, organisations should subsequently empower their finance groups to develop into change-makers throughout the enterprise and to pioneer monetary stability.
“That is no small feat and requires people to stability an enormous remit, offensive and defensive monetary methods and better collaboration throughout departments. AI could make this stability attainable, however this doesn’t imply leaders ought to embrace it blindly. Nor ought to they use it to switch their groups – even when, because the findings present, they’re struggling to encourage them. Monetary minds, and particularly monetary change-makers, will not be simply changed – particularly in as we speak’s local weather. However, with the fitting expertise and management, they are often simply empowered.”
As Westh-Lonning feedback, AI goes to be key in traversing the challenges dealing with companies in 2025. Understanding the place to prioritise sources can be essential, and one main component that may assist with that is AI. As an illustration, those that are in a position to deal with mission-critical work are 103 per cent extra prone to have good visibility versus these battling time-consuming handbook duties. Nonetheless, solely 34 per cent of UK companies are presently utilizing AI to unencumber the headspace to deal with high-level technique on this method.
Misusing AI
As an alternative, UK companies see AI as a substitute for his or her monetary minds. Greater than half (59 per cent) of British enterprise leaders say it’s simpler to make use of AI than to encourage staff – climbing to 82 per cent for these corporations utilizing AI extensively.
One more reason UK leaders are turning to AI is the rising price of staff. Over half (57 per cent) of UK companies say that tax will increase associated to Nationwide Insurance coverage and minimal wage make them extra doubtless to make use of AI than rent new staff and greater than two-thirds (68 per cent) of leaders are apprehensive they are going to be pressured to move the price of employee-related taxes on to their prospects.
One other potential mistake from companies is so as to add AI to their tech stacks with little to no technique. Offered on the advantages it brings to effectivity and productiveness, leaders are blindly bashing the AI button – and, in some circumstances, creating extra issues than options. As an illustration, nearly half of leaders (47 per cent) say that digital overload is sending them again to conventional options corresponding to spreadsheets and calculators. In the meantime, 52 per cent say their enterprise has too many various instruments and software program.
What’s extra, poor implementation is resulting in poor integration, with 72 per cent of leaders saying this causes frustration and wastes time. This declare is supported by the truth that staff are spending a mean of 123 hours a 12 months (greater than three working weeks) switching between instruments that don’t combine properly.
Being smarter with cash: discovering the fitting tech
To set their finance groups up for fulfillment, companies should suppose more durable concerning the stability between expertise and the staff who use it. It’s encouraging that 70 per cent of UK leaders count on to focus extra on AI and tech expertise when hiring for finance groups – and that 71 per cent imagine AI can take their CFO and finance workforce’s break day admin jobs and return it to extra high-level and strategic duties.
Nonetheless, corporations should implement it strategically with clear targets, measured outcomes, an understanding of the way it will combine with present techniques, and the very best individuals to make it occur quick.
When the purse strings are this tight, having efficient, well-integrated expertise may give companies the visibility they have to be smarter with their cash, e.g staying agile to key monetary occasions, making money work more durable, and streamlining subscriptions.
As an illustration, 73 per cent of finance groups say {that a} single overview of all accounts, currencies and wallets in a single place is an important factor for full visibility. However any expertise roll-out shouldn’t take away people from making these choices, or obscure their visibility by way of tech overload.