The finance and accounting space is experiencing a talent shortage. In 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported the largest single-year drop in accounting graduates in 20+ years. CFO reported on a survey that indicated 84% of CFOs face “significant” talent shortages that have caused them to reevaluate their approach to staffing.
AvidXchange’s 2025 Trends Survey underscored this, with 66% of respondents noting that staffing shortages affected their finance department in 2024. Seventy-seven percent of finance departments have invested in AI and automation to help address talent shortages in 2024, according to our survey.
AI can help short-staffed finance and accounting teams by automating routine tasks such as data entry, invoice processing, and financial reporting. This allows existing staff to improve productivity, doing more with less. However, many organizations are experiencing challenges calculating AI ROI.
While AI ROI may be difficult to calculate this early in the game, it’s undeniable that it can play an important role in addressing today’s finance talent shortages.
What is AI ROI?
AI ROI refers to the value that an organization gains from its investment in AI tools compared to the cost of implementing and maintaining those tools. AI ROI is used to determine whether the organization’s investment in AI is yielding positive returns and contributing to the overall success of the business.
Evaluating ROI on any technology implementation is important so businesses can ensure their teams use new tools to their fullest potential. It can help inform resource allocation and guide future decision-making.
Measuring AI ROI
Measuring AI ROI is a challenge for some businesses given the newness of the technology. Our 2025 Trends Survey found that 68% of finance departments have experienced significant ROI and tangible benefits from their AI investments. However, 71% of finance leaders said they are concerned about measuring the ROI of their AI tools.
Has your finance department seen any ROI or tangible benefits from your AI investments?
Source: AvidXchange 2025 Trends Survey
CFO Dive reports that though AI is expected to spur as much as $1 trillion in U.S. economic growth and a 3.5% gain in productivity by 2032, only 5.2% of companies are reporting solid earnings gains (>10%) from using AI.
Experts note that while AI ROI may take some time, it is still a worthy investment. Instead of focusing on earnings gains at first, it may be more impactful to concentrate on AI’s impact on other areas like productivity, customer service, or accuracy.
Tips for Tracking AI’s Organizational Impact
Understanding that AI ROI can be delayed, consider these tips to help manage stakeholder expectations and create an action plan within your organization.
Create a timeline: According to EY-Parthenon Chief Economist Gregory Daco in CFO Dive, companies should expect benefits from investing in generative AI over the next five years. Creating a timeline that reflects this can help reset expectations for those seeking immediate ROI.
Identify use cases: In CIO, Stuart King of consulting firm AnzenSages said although organizations want to dive in with AI, he recommends a more measured approach. “What you really want to be doing is finding a problem to solve with it first,” he said.
Gartner also recommends that businesses consider potential use cases before launching large-scale AI projects.
Focus on incremental progress: Incremental improvements can lead to large gains over time. Tracking small, manageable steps toward a larger goal allows for regular feedback and adjustments.
Organizations can define specific metrics they want to measure and ask teams to track them. For instance, if time savings is a key metric, the organization might request that individuals record each instance when using AI leads to saved time.
Some other potential metrics finance teams can track include:
• Number of errors
• Processing time
• Cost savings
• Employee productivity
• Compliance/risk management issue reduction
• Customer satisfaction
• Adoption rate
Invest in training: The World Economic Forum suggests organizations should consider supporting AI adoption with employee training programs to help boost ROI. According to our survey respondents, most businesses are heeding this advice, with 65% providing staff training on AI and 50% offering upskilling and reskilling opportunities.
What actions has your company taken to help maximize the ROI from your AI tools?
Source: AvidXchange 2025 Trends Survey
Understanding AI can empower employees to leverage tools more effectively, drive innovation, and adapt to technological advancements. It can also help improve customer service and satisfaction.
AI to Address Finance Staffing Challenges
AI enables teams to operate more efficiently with fewer resources, mitigating the impact of talent shortages. Using this technology to complete the same amount of work (or more) with fewer employees will likely be one of the most popular AI use cases resulting in meaningful ROI for finance departments in the coming years.
As the finance function evolves, proficiency in digital tools and data analytics is increasingly essential. Many organizations will prioritize hiring staff with strong digital skills or developing those skills internally with upskilling programs.
Finance professionals can position themselves for career opportunities by developing technical skills that allow them to use AI and other technologies to their full capability, including query engineering, data visualization, and process automation.
Finance AI in 2025
AI will likely continue to be a hot topic in finance and accounting throughout 2025, as teams find the most influential use cases and measure their impact.
To learn more about the outlook for AI and other trends on the minds of finance leaders, download our free report, “2025 Finance Focus,” by clicking below.