Reflecting on 2025 and the Rise of the Strategic CFO

Across conversations with finance and operations leaders in 2025, a consistent theme emerged. The Office of the CFO was no longer being judged solely on the quality of its insights, but on how effectively those insights translated into action across the business.

By the end of the year, many leaders described the same inflection point. As enterprise complexity increased, CFOs faced a clear choice: remain removed from execution or move closer to the decisions that shape cashflow, risk and performance. Those who stayed at a distance saw financial insight stall at the point of handoff, leading to slower decision-making, fragmented visibility, and growing gaps between strategy and operational action.

Taken together, these reflections point to a defining period for financial leadership. Expectations for the Office of the CFO expanded beyond informing decisions to shaping how and when they were executed, resetting how finance creates value across the enterprise.

Inside the CFO’s evolution in 2025

The year 2025 marked a turning point in how finance leaders approached decision-making, technology investments and cross-functional ownership. With reporting viewed as table stakes, execution took precedence and became many CFOs’ top priority.

The reflections below capture how the Office of the CFO expanded its influence and operational impact.

1. CFOs took ownership of how growth decisions were executed

In 2025, finance leaders prioritized scalable processes and decision-ready visibility at the point where capital and risk were committed. Long gone were the days of chasing isolated gains. Instead, CFOs focused on understanding how each business decision impacted cashflow, risk and performance.

That shift became most visible in process design. Integrated source-to-pay and order-to-cash platforms replaced fragmented systems, allowing CFOs to see how procurement decisions directly influenced billing accuracy, collections timing and cash availability.
Dan Reeve, VP of Sales at Esker, points to orchestration as the defining success of the year.

“The biggest success was the CFO’s evolution from a financial steward to a strategic growth architect. In 2025, CFOs embraced orchestration over siloed automation, leveraging integrated platforms to connect source-to-pay and order-to-cash processes. This shift delivered measurable outcomes such as improved working capital, reduced risk and faster decision-making.”

This mattered because it moved finance upstream where decisions are made, not downstream where consequences are explained. For example, upstream procurement challenges that created downstream cash delays became easier to identify and resolve before they escalated.

Shelly-Ann Cambel, Source-To-Pay Strategic Solution Manager at Esker, sees this as part of a broader mindset shift.
“Rather than focusing solely on cost management, CFOs are leveraging automation and analytics to drive strategic growth. Source-to-pay platforms are becoming strategic assets that provide real-time insight, optimize cashflow and strengthen resilience.”
Together, these changes positioned finance closer to execution, allowing CFOs to influence growth with greater discipline and consistency.

2. AI shifted from experimentation to expectation

In 2025, AI stopped being a finance experiment and became an expectation, provided it directly supported execution and decision-making. CFOs became more selective in how they evaluated technology, prioritizing use cases that delivered measurable outcomes.

As a result, buying behavior shifted. Instead of standalone tools, finance leaders prioritized AI embedded directly into workflows, such as forecasting, payables, receivables and working capital, all supported by shared data and consistent metrics.

Kurtis Heister, Strategic Solutions Manager at Esker, notes that this shift reflected a more pragmatic approach to AI adoption.
“The market has matured and companies have learned how to buy AI. It’s no longer about demos that show what might be possible. Finance leaders are looking for AI that solves specific challenges and produces real value.”

One area where this played out was cash forecasting. Predictive models allowed CFOs to test scenarios before volatility hit, helping guide supplier negotiations, capital allocation and liquidity planning.

Daniel Reeve emphasized the growing importance of transparency in this environment.
“Agentic AI is no longer a buzzword. Finance leaders are investing in AI to augment human judgment. Governance and transparency are critical to maintaining trust as adoption scales.”

AI became an expectation because it supported better decision-making, not because it replaced decision-makers.

3. Automation reshaped finance roles without diminishing accountability 

As reconciliation, variance analysis and reporting became automated, accountability did not disappear; it shifted toward higher-stakes judgment and decision ownership.

This changed how finance supported the business. Instead of explaining historical performance, teams focused on scenario planning, decision frameworks and trade-off analysis.

Ari Widlansky, U.S. Managing Director & COO at Esker, described how this reallocation of effort fundamentally changed what finance teams are accountable for.
“AI absorbed repetitive analysis, while finance talent focused on designing decision frameworks, interpreting scenarios and owning outcomes. Automation handled scale. Humans retained judgment and accountability.”

The benefit was not limited to finance. Business leaders gained access to insights that combined clean data with real context, allowing for faster and more confident decision-making.

Shelly-Ann adds that this balance accelerated decision velocity across the organization.
“By embedding automation and analytics into finance workflows, teams are making faster, more informed decisions that support both financial and operational objectives.”

Automation changed the nature of work, but accountability remained firmly with people.

4. The CFO emerged as the enterprise connector

In 2025, CFOs increasingly acted as the connective layer between procurement, operations, sales and customer experience data.
A key example: the push toward a unified customer view. By connecting ERP, CRM, banking, logistics and dispute data, finance teams reduced disputes, shortened resolution cycles and improved cash predictability, while creating a more consistent customer experience.

Kurtis highlights how this visibility reshaped downstream processes.
“Large enterprises were finally able to achieve a single view of the customer. Collections teams saw issues before calling. Credit teams gained clearer risk visibility. Disputes were resolved faster and customers experienced more consistency.”

This connective role extended well beyond receivables. CFOs embedded finance into operating cadence, supporting sales planning, product investment decisions and operational forecasting.

Dan sees this as a defining leadership shift.
“CFOs became the connective tissue across procurement, IT and operations. By breaking down silos, finance helped enable agility and resilience across the business.”

By strengthening cross-functional alignment, CFOs ensured finance was present not just in planning conversations, but in the execution that followed.

A defining year of the Office of the CFO

The changes that took hold in 2025 reshaped not just how finance operates, but how CFOs are evaluated by their peers and boards. CFOs demonstrated that integrated platforms, disciplined technology adoption and closer cross-functional alignment could drive both resilience and performance.

Finance moved closer to execution, influencing decisions in real time rather than responding after the fact. That shift improved predictability, strengthened accountability and raised expectations for what financial leadership can deliver.

CFOs emerged not just as stewards of capital, but as strategic operators with the visibility and influence to guide growth from the inside out. That evolution continues to shape how organizations plan, invest and execute heading into 2026.

Ready to guide growth from the inside out? Discover how Esker equips finance teams to influence decisions where execution begins.