Singapore, August 21, 2026 — At the start of 2026, finance leaders in Asia Pacific mapped out a year built around three big themes: AI as the engine of efficiency, easing rates as the springboard for growth, and a fresh push on young talent. Six months in, the picture is sharper, and in places, surprising.
The first half delivered a verdict on all three. One is ahead of schedule. One is more complicated than expected. One hasn’t moved. Here is the scorecard, and what it means for the second half for CFOs.
AI: Confidence is growing. Trust still has to be earned.
The clearest acceleration this year has been in AI. KPMG’s 2026 Global AI in Finance survey found that active AI use in finance has more than doubled since 2024, rising from 30 per cent to 75 per cent globally. SAP Concur’s own research shows highly automated general office tasks climbed from 7 per cent in 2024 to 57 per cent in 2025, and that trajectory has continued.
Yet adoption is not the same as trust. SAP Concur’s Global Business Travel Report, found that while more than two in five business travellers are open to AI managing pre-trip changes, only 17 per cent want AI-curated travel suggestions based on their preferences. The trend is clear: people will delegate tasks to AI willingly. They are not yet ready to delegate judgment.
For finance leaders, this reframes the AI challenge. The question is no longer whether to deploy AI, but whether the organisation has done the work to make users trust it. Finance transformation is not only about back-office automation. It also depends on whether employees trust AI in everyday workflows such as travel, expense, approvals and compliance.
In the second half, CFOs should focus less on adding more AI tools, and more on governance, transparency, and employee confidence in the workflows where AI is already being used.
Growth: Appetite intact. Execution more selective.
The growth story at the start of 2026 was straightforward. Central banks across Asia had cut rates through 2024 and 2025, with APAC M&A deal values climbing 10 per cent across 2025, according to PwC. CFOs were positioning themselves for expansion.
However, the first half of 2026 has been more complicated. APAC deal activity fell 6 per cent year-on-year in Q1 2026, according to GlobalData, with declines in Japan, Australia, South Korea and Singapore. Yet China bucked the trend, and venture financing across the region continued to grow.
The signal for CFOs is not that growth has disappeared. It is that growth is becoming more selective. J.P. Morgan’s APAC survey found 48 per cent of finance leaders rank revenue growth as their top 2026 priority, ahead of digital transformation, cost optimisation, and risk management. However, worsening global economic conditions, trade uncertainty and tariff policy are making execution harder.
For CFOs, this means growth is no longer a broad-cycle decision. It is a timing, capital allocation and execution discipline. Three moves help:
- Review cost end-to-end across the business rather than trimming budget lines, which surfaces savings that can be redirected toward growth investments.
- Build C-suite alignment behind a shared growth plan, with HR, IT and operations partnering on execution.
- Keep business portfolio under continuous review. Growth and deal windows in APAC are now opening and closing within quarters rather than years, so CFOs with the clearest decision discipline will capture the upside.
Talent: The AI bet still lacks a people strategy
The talent challenge has barely shifted in 2026, and that is the problem. APAC finance leaders are betting heavily on AI to drive the next phase of efficiency, but the people needed to operate and govern that AI are looking at job transitions.
ACCA’s Global Talent Trends 2025 survey found that 65 per cent of Singapore-based finance professionals expect to change roles within two years. In India, 53 per cent feel overwhelmed by the pace of technological change, even as 43 per cent identify AI as the most valuable skill for their future.
This turns talent from a workforce issue into a transformation risk. Finance leaders are betting on AI to drive the next phase of efficiency, but those investments will only deliver value if the people expected to use, govern and improve these systems stay long enough to build the required judgment and confidence.
The retention playbook has not changed: competitive pay, autonomy, structured career paths, modern tools and a credible commitment to purpose-led work. What has changed is the urgency. CFOs can no longer treat retention, reskilling and career mobility as separate from the AI investment case.
The organisation cannot scale AI if the people expected to operate it are already halfway out the door.
The priority for the second half of 2026
Six months in, 2026 is moving faster on AI, slower on growth, and unchanged on talent for finance leaders in APAC. The leaders who close the year strongly will be those who push AI from pilots into operational scale, lean into the markets and asset classes where growth is genuinely accelerating, and treat the talent question with the urgency it deserves.
For CFOs, the second half is not about reacting to volatility. It is about converting uncertainty into disciplined choices: where to trust AI, where to deploy capital, and where to invest in people.
The second half will determine which of these themes harden into structural shifts, and which fade. Finance leaders across APAC still have time to act on what the first half has shown them, but the window is narrowing.
Attributed to: Fiona Ashley, VP and Head of Spend Product Marketing, SAP Concur
