AI investments may hit paychecks
A Business Insider analysis warns that heavy corporate AI spending is already reshaping jobs and could affect pay and roles across functions — from automation of routine tasks to new expectations for insight delivery. For FP&A teams this underscores a shift in in‑role value: fewer report generators, more scenario modelers and storytellers. (businessinsider.com)
A ResumeBuilder survey of 866 U.S. business leaders found 54% of companies have cut or plan to cut employee compensation in 2026 to free capital for AI projects, and the survey projects 26% of firms will also enact layoffs this year to fund AI spending (resumebuilder.com). The Conference Board’s 40th US Salary Increase Budgets survey shows employers planned average salary‑budget increases of roughly 3.4% for 2026, matching 2025 levels and constraining room for above‑market pay adjustments while firms redirect capital (conference-board.org). Global consultancies are explicit about the FP&A role change: Deloitte urges a shift from backward‑looking reports to AI‑driven, real‑time scenario planning and decision support, and EY documents enterprise use cases—Microsoft’s “modern finance” and Vodafone’s next‑generation forecasting—as examples of FP&A moving toward scenario modeling and narrative generation (www2.deloitte.com) (ey.com). Gartner’s finance‑focused surveys show rapid tool adoption in practice: 58% of finance functions reported using AI in 2024 (up from 37% in 2023), signaling that automation and augmentation tools are already embedded in many finance teams’ workflows (gartner.com). FP&A Trends’ 2025 benchmark research found 46% of FP&A time is still spent on data collection and validation and only about 17% of teams reported using fully driver‑based models, supporting the industry prescription to reallocate headcount from report production to driver‑based modelers and storytellers (fpa-trends.com 1) (fpa-trends.com 2). The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 shows employers plan large reskilling efforts—about 77% of firms signal reskilling/upskilling actions between 2025–2030—and KPMG and other advisory reports recommend prioritizing driver‑based planning, reusable scenario libraries, and formal narrative playbooks to preserve FP&A influence in C‑suite decisions (weforum.org) (assets.kpmg.com).
