Building a Future-Ready Finance Function: Skills and Training Priorities for 2026 and Beyond

Building a Future-Ready Finance Function: Skills and Training Priorities for 2026 and Beyond

The finance function is undergoing its most significant transformation in a generation. Driven by AI automation, evolving regulatory demands, heightened stakeholder expectations, and a new generation of finance professionals with different skills and expectations, the traditional model of a finance team focused primarily on transactional processing and historical reporting is giving way to something far more strategic.

For CFOs and Finance Directors, the challenge is not simply to keep up — it is to lead the transformation, building a function that is genuinely fit for the demands of the next decade rather than the last.

This guide sets out what skills finance teams need in the AI era, how the function is evolving, and what the most forward-thinking CFOs are investing in to get there.

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How the Finance Function Is Evolving

The traditional finance function was organised around three core activities: transaction processing, financial control, and reporting. These activities remain essential, but they are increasingly being automated — first by ERP systems and RPA, and now by AI-powered tools capable of handling reconciliation, variance analysis, forecasting, and even management commentary.

The consequence is a fundamental shift in what finance teams are for. As routine processes are automated, the value finance professionals add shifts upward: from data production to data interpretation, from reporting the past to shaping the future, from financial stewardship to strategic partnership with the business.

ACCA's Professional Accountants — the Future research describes this shift in terms of finance professionals moving from being "number providers" to "insight generators." McKinsey's work on the future of finance similarly identifies the shift from standardised reporting to analytical and advisory capability as the defining transformation of the finance function in the 2020s.

This evolution has profound implications for the skills finance teams need — and for how organisations invest in developing them.

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The Skills Finance Teams Need in the AI Era

Data Analytics and Financial Modelling

The single most consistently cited skills gap in finance teams is the ability to work with data at scale: to build robust financial models, apply statistical analysis to business problems, use tools such as Power BI, Python, or SQL, and translate data outputs into business insight. As AI handles more data processing, the premium on human ability to interpret, question, and communicate analytical findings increases rather than decreases.

Strategic Advisory and Business Partnering

Finance professionals increasingly need to function as commercial advisers to the business — understanding strategy, communicating financial insight in accessible terms, challenging assumptions, and contributing to decision-making beyond the traditional finance remit. This requires communication skills, commercial awareness, and intellectual confidence that many finance professionals have not historically been trained to develop.

ESG and Sustainability Reporting

The introduction of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards — IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 — and the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) have created significant new demands on finance teams. CFOs are now responsible for sustainability reporting that is subject to the same standards of rigour and assurance as financial reporting, requiring finance staff to develop competency in ESG data, carbon accounting, and climate-related financial disclosures.

AI Literacy

Finance professionals do not need to become AI engineers, but they do need to understand how AI tools work, where they are reliable and where they are not, and how to maintain appropriate human oversight of AI-generated analysis and forecasts. This "AI literacy" — the ability to work effectively alongside AI tools while exercising critical judgement — is emerging as a foundational competency for all finance roles, not just specialist data roles.

Risk and Compliance Awareness

As regulatory complexity increases — from IFRS 17 in insurance to DORA in financial services, from CSRD across sectors to increasing scrutiny of tax governance under HMRC's Senior Accounting Officer regime — finance teams need staff who are current on the regulatory landscape relevant to their business. This is not about having specialists for every regulation; it is about building a baseline of regulatory literacy across the team.

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What CFOs Are Investing in

A 2025 Deloitte CFO Survey found that investment in finance function transformation — including technology, process redesign, and people development — remained the top strategic priority for CFOs, even in an environment of cost pressure. Notably, the survey found that CFOs who reported the highest levels of finance function effectiveness were also those who had invested most consistently in staff development over the preceding three years.

The most common areas of investment reported by CFOs seeking to build future-ready finance functions include:

• Digital skills training: Upskilling existing staff in data analytics tools, financial modelling, and AI literacy rather than attempting to hire digitally fluent finance professionals in a tight market.
• Leadership and commercial skills development: Investing in programmes that develop the business partnering, communication, and strategic thinking capabilities that enable finance professionals to function as genuine advisers to the business.
• ESG and sustainability reporting: Building team capability in ISSB and CSRD requirements ahead of reporting deadlines, rather than relying on external advisers indefinitely.
• Structured CPD frameworks: Moving from ad hoc training attendance to structured CPD programmes with clear learning pathways, measurable outcomes, and links to performance and career development.

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How to Build a Learning Culture in Finance

Investment in individual training programmes is necessary but not sufficient. The finance functions that are best positioned for the future are those that have embedded a genuine learning culture — where continuous development is the norm rather than the exception, and where curiosity and growth are valued alongside technical precision.

Building this culture requires deliberate action from finance leaders:

• Make learning visible: When senior finance leaders talk openly about what they are learning and why it matters, it signals to the team that development is valued at every level.
• Connect learning to career progression: Staff are far more likely to engage with training when they can see a clear link between the skills they are developing and the roles they aspire to.
• Protect time for learning: In pressured finance functions, CPD is often the first thing sacrificed when reporting deadlines approach. Finance leaders who protect dedicated learning time — treating it as a non-negotiable investment — see significantly higher engagement and completion rates.
• Use cohort and peer learning: Online learning is most effective when it is not purely individual. Creating cohorts of staff working through the same programme, with shared discussion and peer accountability, improves completion rates and knowledge transfer.

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Skills Gap Assessment: Where to Start

Before investing in training, finance leaders need a clear picture of where capability gaps exist. Effective approaches to skills gap assessment in finance functions include:

• Competency framework mapping: Defining the skills and knowledge required for each role, and assessing current team capability against that framework — identifying gaps at both individual and team level.
• 360-degree feedback: Gathering input from business partners and senior stakeholders on where finance's contribution could be stronger — often revealing gaps in communication, commercial insight, or strategic contribution that are not visible from within the function.
• Benchmark surveys: Using industry benchmarking data (available from ACCA, CIMA, and organisations such as the AICPA) to assess how the function's capability profile compares to peers.
• Post-audit and post-project reviews: Identifying the skills and knowledge gaps that contributed to errors, inefficiencies, or missed opportunities in recent reporting cycles or projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What skills will finance professionals need most in the next five years?

The skills in greatest demand over the next five years are: data analytics and financial modelling (including proficiency with tools such as Power BI, Python, and SQL); AI literacy — the ability to work effectively alongside AI tools while maintaining critical judgement; ESG and sustainability reporting (particularly under ISSB and CSRD); strategic business partnering and communication; and up-to-date knowledge of the regulatory landscape relevant to the organisation's sector.

How is the finance function changing in the AI era?

AI is automating much of the transactional processing, reconciliation, and routine reporting that has historically occupied a significant proportion of finance team time. This is shifting the function's focus upward — from data production to data interpretation, from historical reporting to forward-looking analysis, and from financial stewardship to strategic advisory. Finance professionals who adapt to this shift add substantially more value; those who do not risk being displaced by the automation itself.

What is a future-ready finance function?

A future-ready finance function is one that can deliver not just accurate and timely financial reporting, but also strategic insight, commercial analysis, risk oversight, and ESG reporting — all while maintaining the controls and governance that underpin financial integrity. It is staffed by professionals who combine technical accounting knowledge with digital literacy, commercial acumen, and the ability to communicate across the organisation.

How do CFOs build a learning culture in finance?

Building a learning culture requires finance leaders to make development visible and valued, connect training to career progression, protect time for learning even during busy reporting periods, and create social learning opportunities — such as cohort programmes or peer discussion groups — that make learning a shared rather than purely individual activity. The tone set by the CFO and Finance Director is critical: if they are visibly curious and committed to their own development, the team will follow.

What is the ROI of upskilling a finance team?

The ROI of finance upskilling operates on multiple levels: reduced attrition (and the associated replacement costs), higher quality financial analysis and decision support, fewer errors and control failures, and the ability to take on new responsibilities — such as ESG reporting or advanced analytics — without expensive external hires. CFOs who have invested consistently in team development report it as one of the highest-return investments they make in the function.

How do I assess the skills gaps in my finance team?

Effective approaches include: mapping current team capability against a defined competency framework for each role; gathering 360-degree feedback from business partners and stakeholders; using industry benchmark surveys from ACCA, CIMA, or similar bodies; and conducting post-project reviews to identify where knowledge gaps contributed to errors or missed opportunities. The output should be a prioritised development plan that links identified gaps to specific training interventions.

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Build the Finance Function Your Business Needs

Learnsignal's accredited online programmes are designed to help finance leaders close the capability gaps that matter most — from data analytics and ESG reporting to regulatory awareness and strategic finance skills. Our expert-led courses are structured for working finance professionals and deliver measurable, demonstrable CPD.

Download the Future-Ready Finance Whitepaper (WP-11) for a comprehensive framework for assessing your team's capability and building a targeted development strategy.

Download the Future-Ready Finance Whitepaper at learnsignal.com/resources/