92% of Finance Teams Use AI — But Only 28% See Real Results

Companies are investing heavily in AI for finance, but the ROI gap is stark: while 92% of finance teams are using AI tools, only 28% are seeing a measurable financial impact. A new survey by The Harris Poll on behalf of Zuora surfaces the uncomfortable gap between AI adoption and actual outcomes.

The data comes from 321 US finance and accounting decision-makers — and the findings challenge the narrative that more AI investment automatically means better outcomes.

Key Takeaways

• Bigger companies are struggling more. Finance departments at 1,000+ employee organizations are 100% invested in AI — but 72% haven't seen measurable financial impact, vs. 48% of smaller firms. Larger companies also expect it will take a year or more to see results (35% vs. 15% of smaller firms).
• The top barriers are operational, not technical. The three leading failure points: difficulty integrating AI outputs into finance workflows (41%), embedding AI in cross-functional processes (39%), and AI insights that don't match core finance system data (35%).
• Trust is the real currency. Ninety-one percent of respondents have concerns about using AI for core financial processes — led by cybersecurity risks (45%), lack of human oversight (38%), and data reliability issues (36%). Finance teams trust AI most when it's embedded in existing systems (53%) over standalone AI-native tools (13%).

The takeaway: AI adoption without integration strategy is noise. The teams seeing results are those building AI into the fabric of their existing workflows — not bolting it on.

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