EY Global DNA of the Financial Controller Survey (EY)

Summary

• The analysis is based on insights from more than 1,000 controllers and senior finance leaders.p.3
• 86% of controllers expect their role to change significantly within the next five years, with 26% anticipating a very different and unknown skill set.p.4
• 88% of respondents say that using data insights to recommend strategic opportunities is already an important aspect of their role.p.4
• Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents are already using AI technologies frequently in their work.p.4
• Fewer than half (43%) of respondents expect to be frequently involved in ESG considerations in financial planning and reporting in five years.p.4
• Only 21% of respondents rank seeking out technological innovation as part of their definition of creating value.p.5
• 51% of controllers in the survey aim to ultimately progress to the CFO role, while 18% of current CFOs were previously controllers.p.26

Key insights

1. 59% of organizations are encouraging their controllers to become value creators to a large or very large extent.p.5
2. 65% of respondents claim to use generative AI on a frequent basis.p.14
3. 36% of respondents said their organization had an ESG controller in place, with a further 58% planning to establish and fill this role.p.15
4. At Tata Chemicals, two bots for seven processes handle almost 80% of invoice processing with more than 95% accuracy.p.17
5. 37% of confident controllers have the opportunity to lead on innovation, compared with 25% of other controllers.p.25
6. 32% of confident controllers see the controller role as their ultimate career ambition, compared with 21% of other controllers.p.26
7. 98% of CFO job postings analyzed require communication skills, 93% demand tech skills and 28% ask for sustainability skills (up from 17% in 2020).p.27