With accounting workloads expanding and the talent pipeline tightening, today’s CFOs are facing an significant capacity gap. The 2026 CFO Pulse Survey - Finance & Accounting Talent from Personiv, an eClerx division, reveals that relying solely on additional hiring is becoming increasingly difficult as a long-term capacity strategy, with 84% of decision-makers saying the talent shortage is now a structural issue. In response, the industry is seeing the rise of the hybrid finance workforce, a strategic blend of in-house talent, AI-driven automation, and global outsourcing. We sat down withMegan Weis, VP and General Manager of FAO Services at Personiv, to dive into the survey’s findings.
Question: Your latest Personiv CFO Pulse survey highlights that 84% of senior leaders continue to navigate a significant talent shortage, and that this deficit has transitioned from cyclical to structural. What are the underlying forces making this talent gap a permanent fixture in finance and accounting?
First, when we say the talent shortage is structural, we mean it’s not simply a tough hiring cycle that will correct itself when the market changes. The supply of experienced accounting talent is no longer keeping pace with what finance organizations need.
There are multiple reasons for this. For example, fewer people are entering the profession, while experienced accountants are retiring at a higher rate. Additionally, salary expectations are rising, and the job expectations for finance keep expanding. In other words, the talent pool is getting tighter just as the job is getting bigger. That’s why hiring alone can’t be the long-term answer. CFOs increasingly need to rethink how work gets done and use the right combination of in-house expertise, automation, and global talent to build capacity.
Question: We were surprised to see the average number of open finance and accounting roles jump to 17 this year, up from just five in 2025. What operational pressures are driving this surge in department vacancies?
That number jumped out at me, too. The average is now 17 open roles, compared with five last year and two in 2024. But I don't think this is simply a story about companies losing more employees. It's also a capacity story.
The workload of finance has expanded faster than many teams can add capacity. Finance owns the books, but increasingly it also owns forecasts, planning, data, and insights that support decisions across the business. At larger companies, the hiring challenge is even more pronounced. Half of organizations with 5,000 or more employees told us that some roles take more than 120 days to fill.
If you're waiting four months for a hire while the work keeps coming, eventually you have to ask a different question: not "How do I fill every seat?" but "What's the best way to get this work done?"
Question: With the share of leaders using AI and automation to reduce the need to fill roles rising from 23% in 2025 to 63% in 2026, what is driving finance leaders to move from cautious experimentation to scaled implementation?
I think we're finally moving beyond AI for AI's sake. Finance leaders are seeing tangible results, and that's changing the conversation.
Last year, just 23% of leaders said AI and automation were reducing the need for certain roles. This year, 63% said they're using these technologies to reduce the need to fill roles. And nearly every organization surveyed reported some level of finance operating-cost reduction from AI and automation.
But I wouldn't interpret that simply as "AI replaces people." That's too simplistic. Twenty-six percent said they're using it to make their existing teams more productive without replacing jobs. The bigger opportunity is matching the resource to the work: automate standardized, repetitive processes, use global talent where human expertise is required, and free your internal team to focus on judgment, analysis, and business partnership. That's where AI becomes part of an operating model rather than another technology experiment.
Question: Your report suggests that larger enterprises are reporting stronger benefits from technology adoption. What can mid-sized and smaller organisations learn from the way these firms deploy automation at scale?
Smaller organizations may not have the same technology budgets or internal AI resources, but the lesson isn't "spend like an enterprise." It's to be deliberate about where you automate. Start with processes that are standardized, repetitive, and high-volume, where the business case is clear and results can be measured.
And don't automate a bad process. Standardize it first, understand the handoffs and controls, and then determine where technology can remove friction. Focused automation can be far more valuable than trying to transform everything at once.
Question: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Cash Application are the top three most outsourced functions. Why do you think these areas are the most popular for building a hybrid workforce?
AP, AR, and cash application are a natural starting point because they are high-volume, process-driven functions that still require human expertise and oversight. According to the Personiv survey, 81% of respondents outsource AP, 72% outsource AR, and 70% outsource cash application.
These processes also consume an enormous amount of internal capacity. Moving the right portions to a global team can create scale and consistency while automation handles repetitive work. Your internal finance professionals can then spend more time on exceptions, analysis, controls, and business decisions.
That's really the hybrid model in practice. It isn't outsourcing everything or automating everything. It's deciding where each type of resource creates the most value.
Question: How does shifting transactional workloads to a blended model of AI and global talent directly enable finance teams to deliver high-level strategic value?
You give people time back. That's one of the simplest answers, but it's incredibly important.
Finance professionals can't become strategic business partners if most of their day is consumed by transactional work. The survey found that 86% of respondents said outsourcing improved efficiency and turnaround times. At the same time, AI and automation are freeing up employee hours.
When you combine those two things, you can redesign where your internal team's time goes. Instead of spending it processing transactions, reconciling routine items, or chasing repetitive tasks, they can focus more on forecasting, analysis, controls, scenario planning, and helping the business make better decisions.
That's why I view the hybrid workforce as much more than a cost strategy. It's a capacity strategy. You're creating room for finance to do the higher-value work everyone keeps asking it to do.
Question: For finance executives ready to move away from purely localized hiring strategies, what are the first critical steps to designing a resilient, high-performing hybrid workforce?
Start with the work, not with the solution.
Map what your team is doing today and separate it into a few categories. What requires judgment, business context, and close stakeholder interaction? What is standardized and repeatable enough to automate? And what still requires accounting expertise but doesn't necessarily need to be performed by an employee sitting in your local office?
From there, look at where you have capacity gaps, bottlenecks, and expensive-to-fill roles. Then determine the right combination of in-house talent, technology, and global resources.
Megan Weis, VP & General Manager FAO Services: Megan joined Personiv in 2017 to develop and manage a world-class Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) offering. She combines over 20 years of finance and accounting experience with business processing outsourcing expertise to deliver exceptional value to her clients. Prior to joining Personiv, Megan was VP of Business Process Services at Everest Group, where she specialized in keeping abreast of the latest trends in FAO and consulting with large global outsourcing providers to create best-in-class FAO services.