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Deloitte · July 2026

CFO Signals Q2 2026: AI governance and risk management

Deloitte's CFO Signals Q2 2026: AI governance and risk management (July 2026; n=200, fielded May 22–Jun 7, 2026) found that 93% of CFOs say their organizations use AI across key operations.

Read the original report ↗Cite2 min read · Summary updated
Balancing speed and risk is CFOs' top AI governance challengePercent of CFOs naming each as a biggest challenge to effective AI governance (up to three), Q2 2026, n=200
Balancing pressure to deploy AI quickly with managing risk
59%
Lack of governance authority or effective challenge
51%
Insufficient visibility into AI tools or use
43%
Speed of AI advancements
39%
Absence of cohesive strategy
36%
Competing functional interests
30%
Costs of controls
23%
Source: Deloitte, CFO Signals Q2 2026, 2026, Figure 2.

Key findings

  1. 01
    59% say balancing pressure to deploy AI quickly with managing risk is their top AI-governance challenge.
  2. 02
    46% cite cost uncertainty or transparency as their biggest internal concern about their organization's AI use.
  3. 03
    43% name litigation over protected or private content as a leading external AI risk.

By the numbers

93%of CFOs say their organizations use AI across key operations
59%say balancing deployment speed with risk is their top AI governance challenge
46%name cost uncertainty or transparency as their biggest internal AI concern
Cost uncertainty is CFOs' top internal AI concernPercent of CFOs naming each as a biggest internal concern about their organization's AI use (up to two), Q2 2026, n=200
Cost uncertainty or transparency
46%
Lack of confidence in AI in key operations
35%
Employee resistance or insufficient AI fluency
33%
AI hallucinations
29%
Shadow AI
28%
Rogue AI
27%
Source: Deloitte, CFO Signals Q2 2026, 2026, Figure 3.

What it means for you Draft

For executives at $10–100M companies

These are $1B+ companies, so the adoption number will not transfer directly to a $10–100M firm. What does transfer is the finance chief's worry: not knowing what AI actually costs and who owns governance. A simple owner, a short approved-tools list, and a line item for AI spend may be enough at our scale.

Limitations

Medium trust.Small (200), $1B+ North American CFOs only; fieldwork disclosed. Deloitte sells AI and finance advisory services.

About the publisher: Sells AI strategy and implementation consulting.

The headline figure measures the “In core work” stage of adoption (running in key processes).Why adoption numbers disagree

Cite the original

Deloitte. "CFO Signals Q2 2026: AI governance and risk management." July 23, 2026. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/business-strategy-growth/2q-2026-cfo-signals-survey.html

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