Nine in ten finance professionals remain concerned about AI-generated insights as Middle East AI investment accelerates

The report, Enabling finance insight: Bridging skills and data gaps for AI-enabled finance, finds finance teams are increasingly using AI and real-time operational data to deliver more strategic insight. However, 93% of finance professionals surveyed remain concerned about the integrity and verifiability of AI-generated insights, underlining the importance of robust governance and workforce capability as AI adoption accelerates.

This shift from retrospective reporting towards providing current and forward-looking insights is driven by a greater breadth of data being used – from real-time operational metrics to unstructured internal text data – and increased use of AI technologies which is reshaping how data is being analysed and interpreted.

The findings are particularly relevant for the Middle East, where AI has become a strategic priority across both the public and private sectors. Countries across the GCC, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, are investing heavily in artificial intelligence to support economic diversification, strengthen productivity and build globally competitive digital economies. As organisations embed AI more deeply into financial decision-making, the role of finance professionals is expanding beyond traditional reporting towards governance, insight and strategic leadership.

The report also highlights a Middle East case study from a major Abu Dhabi-based real estate and hospitality group, where the finance team transformed budgeting and reporting by replacing complex spreadsheet-based processes with an integrated Power BI platform. Processing more than 700,000 rows of data, the project enabled real-time reporting, improved collaboration and positioned finance as a strategic analytics partner across the organisation, demonstrating how strong data foundations can accelerate responsible AI adoption.

Based on a global survey of 1,600 finance professionals, the report found that:

Kush Ahuja, head of Eurasia and Middle East, ACCA, said: ‘As the Middle East accelerates investment in AI as part of its wider economic diversification ambitions, finance professionals have a vital role to play in ensuring these technologies deliver trusted business outcomes. AI has the potential to transform how organisations generate insight, but its value depends on strong governance, professional judgement and people with the skills to apply it responsibly.’

Helen Brand OBE, chief executive, ACCA, said: ‘This research shows how finance teams are evolving from retrospective reporting engines into strategic enablers of enterprise-wide insight. This is a great opportunity, but upskilling is critical. CFOs and finance teams need to lead in the responsible adoption of AI across organisations, ensuring robust training and governance is in place. Critical thinking, sceptical validation and an ethical approach is vital.’

Strategic priorities (45%) and regulatory requirements (43%) are the key drivers of the increase in data analysis to produce insights. While progress is significant, the report highlights the key areas finance functions need to address to improve business insights: data quality issues (42%), lack of appropriate skills (42%), and difficulty integrating multiple sources (40%).

Realising finance’s potential as a strategic enabler of insight hinges on developing the right skills and strengthening collaboration. The research examined the talent profile of the modern finance function, uncovering that while ambition is high, execution is threatened by a misalignment between skills and capabilities in areas such as generative AI literacy, predictive analytics, collaboration over coding, storytelling and data governance/ethics.

The report aims to equip CFOs and finance leaders with actionable recommendations to help them and their teams provide trusted insight, effectively steward data, govern AI responsibly, and drive measurable value for the entire organisation.

Key messages from the report: