Limelight Software today released its 2026 FP&A Statistics Report, drawing on more than 50 benchmarks to reveal a finance function caught between rising technology investment and legacy workflows. The report shows that 77% of CFOs and senior finance leaders plan to increase FP&A technology spending in 2025, with 47% expecting a 10%+ increase versus 2024, according to Gartner. The FP&A software market is projected to grow from $3.9 billion in 2023 to $9.7 billion by 2031.
AI adoption is set to more than double inside 12 months. Currently, 28% of finance departments use AI in forecasting, and another 39% plan to adopt it within the next year, per PwC. The AI in FP&A market alone is projected to grow at a 34.8% CAGR through 2034. However, the report highlights a stark contrast: nearly 100% of FP&A professionals still use spreadsheets for monthly planning and reporting, according to AFP. Over half of FP&A teams now manage eight or more data categories and ten or more reporting tools each quarter.
Forecast accuracy remains the top cost-control obstacle. 61% of CFOs say inaccurate forecasting is the single biggest barrier to controlling costs, based on SAP Concur data. 82% of companies make decisions based on stale information, and 85% say that outdated data leads directly to lost revenue. Transformation programs are stalling: 69% of finance transformation initiatives are progressing slower than planned, and 30% fail to hit their goals outright, often due to poor change management, according to Gartner.
The CFO role continues to expand. 82% of CFOs say their remit has grown significantly over the past five years, per Egon Zehnder. 81% now see themselves as the primary drivers of business growth, and 50% are planning a finance restructure. AI is reshaping forecasting first: 66% of finance leaders say generative AI will have the biggest immediate impact on explaining forecast and budget variances, and 55% of retail and CPG finance leaders are already using Gen AI in their forecasting workflows, according to Gartner.
"Finance leaders in 2026 are being pulled in two directions," said Rosie Shea, BDM at Limelight Software. "They're expected to drive strategy, sponsor digital transformation, and accelerate ROI, while still spending most of their week pulling numbers out of spreadsheets. The teams pulling ahead have stopped tolerating that gap. They've centralised their planning data, automated the manual work, and put AI on real forecasting problems rather than treating it as a science project." Shea added, "What the data really shows is a distance between intent and infrastructure. CFOs are committing larger budgets to FP&A technology and accelerating AI adoption. But nearly 100% of finance professionals are still working in spreadsheets, and 61% point to forecast accuracy as their biggest cost-control problem. Closing that gap is the work of the next two years."
The full report is available at Limelight's FP&A Statistics Report. More information about Limelight Software can be found at their website.
