As many as 70% of UK leaders are optimistic about their business performance in 2025.
However, fiscal challenges – including inflation (42%), high energy bills (36%), and high business taxes (35%) – threaten to derail this.
This results in 76% of UK financial decision-makers saying they are experiencing unprecedented levels of pressure as they attempt to navigate macroeconomic uncertainties.
This is according to research from Pleo’s new report – The CFO’s Playbook for 2025 – which surveyed 500 UK financial decision-makers and highlights the balancing act finance leaders face between optimism and rising economic pressures.
If businesses are to navigate the challenges of 2025 and beyond, they must ensure financial minds are able to prioritise mission-critical work and decision-making.
Key to this is using technology like AI to eliminate manual work. For instance, those who are able to focus on mission-critical work are 103% more likely to have good visibility versus those struggling with time-consuming manual tasks.
However, only 34% of UK businesses are currently using AI to free up the headspace to focus on high-level strategy in this way.
Instead, UK businesses see AI as a replacement for their financial minds. More than half (59%) of British business leaders say it is easier to use AI than to motivate employees – climbing to 82% for those companies using AI extensively. While another reason UK leaders are turning to AI is the rising cost of employees. Over half (57%) of UK businesses say that tax increases related to National Insurance and minimum wage make them more likely to use AI than hire new employees and more than two-thirds (68%) of leaders are worried they will be forced to pass the cost of employee-related taxes on to their customers.
Another potential mistake from businesses is to add AI to their tech stacks with little to no strategy. Sold on the benefits it brings to efficiency and productivity, leaders are blindly bashing the AI button – and, in some cases, creating more problems than solutions. For instance, almost half of leaders (47%) say that digital overload is sending them back to traditional solutions such as spreadsheets and calculators. While 52% say their business has too many different tools and software.
What’s more, poor implementation is leading to poor integration, with 72% of leaders saying this causes frustration and wastes time. This claim is supported by the fact that workers are spending an average of 123 hours a year (more than 3 working weeks) switching between tools that don’t integrate well.
To set their finance teams up for success, businesses must think harder about the balance between technology and the employees who use it. It’s encouraging that 70% of UK leaders expect to focus more on AI and tech skills when hiring for finance teams – and that 71% believe AI can take their CFO and finance team’s time off admin jobs and return it to more high-level and strategic tasks. But companies must implement it strategically with clear objectives, measured outcomes, an understanding of how it will integrate with existing systems, and the best people to make it happen fast.
When the purse strings are this tight, having effective, well-integrated technology can give businesses the visibility they need to be smarter with their money, e.g. staying agile to key financial events, making cash work harder, and streamlining subscriptions. For instance, 73% of finance teams say that a single overview of all accounts, currencies and wallets in one place is the most important thing for full visibility. But any technology roll-out shouldn’t remove humans from making those decisions, or obscure their visibility through tech overload.
Pleo CFO, Søren Westh-Lonning said, “As we move into 2025, businesses will continue to face uncertainty. But learning to manage uncertainties requires financial stability, not financial guesswork. To remain competitive, organisations must therefore empower their finance teams to become change-makers across the business and to pioneer financial stability.
“This is no small feat and requires individuals to balance a huge remit, offensive and defensive financial strategies and greater collaboration across departments. AI can make this balance possible, but this does not mean leaders should embrace it blindly. Nor should they use it to replace their teams – even if, as the findings show, they are struggling to motivate them. Financial minds, and especially financial change-makers, are not easily replaced – especially in today’s climate. But, with the right technology and leadership, they can be easily empowered.”
