Finance teams appear to be entering 2026 with a much clearer insight into how AI can benefit their organisation, according to new research from Aqilla.

Research conducted at the company’s most recent user conference found three-quarters of finance leaders want to expand automation, while 83% are optimistic about the impact of AI on finance processes.

This marks a significant year-on-year shift from data collected at the company’s 2024 event, when fewer than two-thirds said AI could help speed up accounting and reporting tasks.

Familiarity with AI is also improving. Just 8% of respondents now describe themselves as fearful of AI, compared with 20% last year who said they did not understand the technology.

This suggests finance teams are no longer debating whether AI belongs in their sector and are more comfortable with allowing it to support everyday activities. One practical reason may be that data entry and imports remain the single biggest bottleneck for almost 40% of respondents, underscoring the scale of repetitive manual work finance teams still have to handle.

Together, the findings suggest that as fear of AI recedes, finance teams are more willing to delegate routine, rules-based work to AI-enabled automation, with many moving beyond pilots and proofs of concept towards wider, day-to-day use.

“The combination of rising confidence and falling fear suggests finance teams are no longer holding AI at arm’s length. Many are starting to consider where and how it can be trusted to take on real work,” said Hugh Scantlebury, founder and CEO at Aqilla.

“At the same time, the persistence of manual bottlenecks and the continued emphasis on accuracy and control indicate that finance leaders are not looking to automate blindly, but to apply AI in ways that preserve visibility, accountability and human judgement.”

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Charis Thomas, Chief Product Officer at Aqilla said: “Our customers echo wider market sentiments. They aren’t ready to hand everything over to AI – and neither should they be at this stage. They’re more discerning. They want AI-enabled solutions that remove repetitive work and improve accuracy. But they’re unwilling to trade human accountability. That’s good news in terms of retaining ethical AI use and compliance adherence.”

“These findings suggest that 2026 will be the year when AI can finally take the strain of repetitive work – capturing data, routing items and suggesting classifications – but in ways that still allow users to interrogate, override, pause or slow things down whenever needed.

“That balance is crucial to helping finance teams feel secure as they scale their AI use. Rather than focusing on the technology itself, users are giving careful consideration to governance, skills, and responsible application. This will help ensure deployments support better decision-making, even when pressure increases, and deadlines loom,” Hugh concludes.”