CFOs are slightly more optimistic, focusing on pricing and operation costs in 2026.

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Now that it’s officially pumpkin spice season, the urge to start looking toward 2026 is kicking in.

But as with any forecast, we’ve got to start with the current mood before we jump into next year.

Vibe check. The October Deloitte CFO Signals survey showed that CFOs were slightly more optimistic in Q3, the second quarter in a row when sentiment rose.

The confidence in current and future business conditions rose from 5.4 in Q2 to 5.7, “solidly in medium territory,” but just one in five respondents to the survey described the country’s economy as in good shape, and 8% thought it was bad or very bad.

“I think there continues to be a lot of uncertainty emanating from a lot of different spheres, whether it be policy, geopolitics, or capital markets,” Steve Gallucci, Deloitte global and US CFO program leader, told CFO Brew. “CFOs have become adept at managing through uncertainty. So that’s not anything new.”

However, even though CFOs were less than enthused about the current macroeconomic climate, many remained bullish on their own companies. The vast majority (90%) believed their companies’ financial outlook had improved compared with three months ago.

Many remained risk-averse in Q3. In fact, 65% said it was not a good time to be taking on more risk, a slightly lower percentage than last quarter. The financial sector CFOs, however, were more skittish, with 77% not wanting to take on more risk at the moment.

The CFO Signals survey was conducted from September 3–17 with 200 CFOs from the US, Canada, and Mexico whose companies had at least $1 billion in revenues.

Looking ahead. Now that we’ve taken the current temperature, let’s look to next year. According to another Deloitte analysis of its CFO Signals report as well as a Gartner survey on budget assumptions, CFOs are looking at pricing strategies and reining in selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) budgets to prepare for next year’s possible recession.

According to Deloitte, the majority of finance chiefs it surveyed (86%) expected their organizations to place increased emphasis on pricing over the next 12 months. That’s a continuing trend, as 95% of the respondents had already “entirely, significantly, or somewhat” changed pricing strategies in the past six months. As Deloitte noted, US companies are facing the highest average effective tariff rate since 1934.

Nearly half of the CFOs surveyed said they’d pass at least some costs on to customers. But 54% said quickly adjusting prices is difficult since “their organizations lack a cohesive strategy or plan.”

On the budgeting side, Gartner’s budget assumptions survey reported that 64% of CFOs were “planning for their SG&A budgets to grow more slowly than their 2026 revenue growth rate.” Gartner’s survey collected data from 142 CFOs and finance executives between August and September of this year.

“CFOs are signaling that operational efficiency, not just revenue growth, will define success in the coming year,” Randeep Rathindran, distinguished VP of research in Gartner’s Finance practice, said in a statement. “A focus on SG&A discipline reflects a concerted effort to right size overheads even as organizations pursue top-line expansion.”

CFOs are planning to reduce budgets for human resources, corporate IT, legal and compliance, corporate finance, and marketing, according to Gartner’s study.

And of course, we can’t get out of an article without mentioning AI. Gartner reported that 42% of CFO respondents predicted AI would drive a reduction in headcount for these SG&A functions; a third expected reductions of between 1% and 5%.