AI and the CFO: Top 5 Insights from Sage Future 2025

Sage Future 2025 showcased how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the accounting landscape - and beyond. In his keynote, Sage CTO Aaron Harris revealed not just the technology but also the cultural and strategic shifts that finance leaders must embrace. 

Here are five key takeaways that every CFO, partner, and finance professional should know:

1. Sage Copilot's Success Story: More Than Just Data Entry

Since its launch last year, Sage Copilot has already revolutionized the way users interact with Sage products. In one product, Sage Sales Manager, about 25% of data entry in Copilot happens through voice input—saving time and improving accessibility. 

But the real power comes from Sage Copilot's ability to drive proactive prompting: over 26 million relevant business insights were delivered to users in the past year alone. It's a testament to how AI, when designed with user experience in mind, can surface insights that help CFOs and their teams act faster and smarter.

2. The Rise of Agentic AI: From Tools to Autonomous Agents

The keynote emphasized the emergence of “agentic AI”—intelligent agents that can handle complex tasks, adapt dynamically, and decide which tools to use, all without constant human direction. 

These agents are paired with domain-specific large language models (LLMs), such as Sage's own accounting-focused LLMs. This means AI isn't just automating tasks—it's becoming a collaborative partner, capable of orchestrating workflows and reasoning through problems in ways that mimic human expertise.

3. The New Role of the CFO: Do More, Smarter, and Differently

Today's CFOs face unprecedented challenges: expanded responsibilities, increasing compliance demands, and a shrinking talent pool. 

Here's how AI empowers CFOs to tackle these challenges:

“Do More”: AI automates foundational CFO tasks—like closing books and tax filing—freeing CFOs to focus on high-value activities. Research suggests nearly all routine finance functions can now be automated, shifting CFOs' time to strategic planning and growth.

“Do More Smarter”: Traditionally, finance teams have relied on sampling methods—checking only a small fraction of contracts, invoices, or transactions. But with AI, CFOs can now analyze every single transaction in near real-time, across structured and unstructured data. AI enables much more thorough analysis and smarter planning. 

For example, acquisition risk modeling that was limited to a few scenarios can now run unlimited simulations incorporating diverse data types, including forecasting. AI makes processes both deeper and more intelligent.

“Do More Differently”: AI empowers CFOs to rethink service delivery, shifting to subscription-based models and real-time insights rather than relying on historical reporting. This transformation allows finance teams to anticipate challenges and opportunities, enabling CFOs to steer the business with greater agility.

As finance leaders embrace AI, they'll also need to rethink team structures and processes—imagine moving from monthly closes to weekly or even hourly closes, powered by AI-driven workflows.

4. Trust is Non-Negotiable

Sage's approach to AI is grounded in trust—a key ingredient for adoption in critical financial workflows. Harris highlighted Sage's seven-year AI investment journey, including:

• Rigorous testing of AI models for accuracy, safety, and compliance.
  
  
• Using Sage's proprietary AI Factory to automate the machine learning lifecycle, ensuring secure and reliable updates.
  
  
• Specially developed accounting LLMs that outperform off-the-shelf models by about 50% on complex accounting questions.
  
  

Sage even uses “AI to check AI,” with one model verifying another's outputs—a reminder that trust must be engineered at every layer of the system.

5. Building AI as a Platform: Empowering Partners and Customers

Looking ahead, Sage is making its AI capabilities available to partners—enabling them to build custom solutions that extend beyond Sage's core products. This open ecosystem approach means partners can harness the same AI services that power features like fraud detection and invoice automation. 

What we're given is a more flexible, connected finance platform that supports continuous accounting, continuous assurance, and continuous insights—where every business activity is captured, validated, and analyzed in real time.

Conclusion

The future of finance is being reshaped by AI—transforming everything from data entry to strategic decision-making. For CFOs and finance teams, this means more opportunities than ever to focus on what really matters: driving growth, innovation, and value.

At Venn Technology, we're committed to helping you harness AI's potential—by integrating and automating systems so your team can focus on high-value work instead of manual processes. 

Let's partner together to build a smarter, more efficient financial future!