AI Rises on the Finance Leadership Agenda as Cost Control Dominates 2026, New Survey Reveals

MANCHESTER, UK / ACCESS Newswire / February 3, 2026 / AccessPay, the leading bank integration provider, today announced the release of its Finance Trends 2026 report, presenting the findings of its annual survey of finance leaders. In this fourth year of the report, AccessPay reveals marked sectoral differences between finance teams in financial services firms and those in corporates with regards to their priorities and attitudes to technology adoption.

Key findings from the report include:

1. Finance leaders are prioritising finance efficiency and cost control

Finance teams across all sectors are placing renewed emphasis on efficiency and cost control in 2026. 47% of general corporates cited this as a priority, a goal shared by 46% of financial services firms.

Although cost control is a perennial concern in financial management, sluggish economic growth, rising costs, and geopolitical turmoil have brought it to the fore. Finance leaders are being pushed to do more with less, which also means there is greater interest in adopting advanced technologies; 47% of general corporates and 43% of financial services firms stated they were prioritising the adoption of AI within the coming 18 months.

2. Financial services firms are pulling ahead in finance transformation

In both the financial services (29%) and general corporate (24%) sectors, a leading pack of firms report that their finance function has a high degree of automation and integration across all back-office systems.

Beyond this, there is a stark dichotomy between the financial and non-financial segments. 45% of financial services firms stated they were advanced in their finance transformation efforts, where most finance processes are automated. In comparison, 41% of corporates stated finance transformation efforts were progressing, with partial automation and manual workarounds. This highlights that there are still many quick wins to be realised in the corporate space through simple automation based on bank connectivity.

3. Insufficient budget is a bigger barrier to AI adoption for corporates

Financial services firms are much more likely to have invested in AI for finance operations than general corporates. 46% of financial services firms report having implemented AI enhancements to a high degree, compared to 28% of corporates.

Both financial and non-financial sectors faced common barriers to AI adoption, including a lack of internal expertise and resistance to cultural change. However, corporates were far more likely to cite insufficient budget as an issue with 31% raising this as a barrier, compared to 17% of financial services firms.

"The disparities between the financial and non-financial sectors in terms of their attitudes towards technology investment are striking," comments Anish Kapoor, CEO of AccessPay. "Longer-term, the underinvestment in general corporates could backfire. In the current macroeconomic environment, finance teams will need to stress-test plans to ensure they can operate at the low end of their scenarios. This is why we predict 2026 will be a key year for automation in payment and treasury operations. If finance departments are to operate with reduced headcount or scale without increasing staff, leaders also need to consider how to make up that shortfall with technology."

Download the full report here to learn more about digital transformation in finance operations and how bank connectivity solutions can help automate payments and bank statement data flows.

About AccessPay's Finance Trends Survey

AccessPay's Finance Trends 2026 Survey was conducted online during October 2025. The aggregated results are based on 130 respondents from various sectors, including financial services, legal, retail, manufacturing and utilities. Findings for the financial services sector are based on 84 respondents across banking and insurance, while corporate findings are based on 54 respondents. A small proportion of companies is classified in both segments. Typical job titles of respondents include (Deputy) Finance Director, Financial Systems Manager, Head of Treasury, and Head of Managed Services.

About AccessPay

AccessPay is a leading provider of bank integration solutions, pioneering finance transformation for the Office of the CFO. AccessPay helps finance and treasury teams modernise their operations through secure, cloud-based bank connectivity.

Our platform connects back-office systems to banks, enabling the automated flow and transformation of payment, bank statement and other financial data. Thousands of businesses around the world partner with AccessPay to automate supplier and client payments, Direct Debit collections, and bank statement retrieval - improving efficiency, reducing fraud risk, and gaining real-time cash visibility.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Manchester, UK, AccessPay is trusted by global enterprises to automate finance and treasury operations and build a future-ready Office of the CFO.

• Website: www.accesspay.com

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Press contacts:

Chanda Shingadia, The Comms Crowd 
Email: chanda@commscrowd.com
Phone: +44 (0)7951 163 61

SOURCE: AccessPay

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire