Why AI skills are becoming a must-have in accounting roles

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It appears AI skills have moved from a “nice to have” to a basic standard for accounting and finance pros.

New research from academic and corporate sources alike highlights how deep AI expectations run in CFO circles.

Financial platform Datarails found that 31% of finance job postings now call out AI or machine-learning skills, up from 25% a year ago. The analysis of 5,000 US job postings between January 2025 and January 2026 also found that 27% of CFO job listings in January 2026 required “AI familiarity,” unchanged from a year earlier. The biggest jump came in postings for accounting roles, where AI mentions increased to 30% from just 18% the previous year.

“The finance professionals who will thrive are those who combine AI fluency with strategic thinking and the ability to tell a compelling story with data,” Didi Gurfinkel, CEO of Datarails, said in a news release.

The “revenue-based labor productivity” gains (i.e., output per worker) realized from AI could double this year compared to the “positive” effects” of 2025, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that features the findings from a survey of 750 corporate execs. The paper noted that the gains were more strongly felt in “firms in high-skill services—particularly finance,” though firms with low-skilled services, as well as industries like manufacturing and construction, also saw gains.

AI may allow “firms to reallocate labor away from routine/clerical roles,” including tasks like “data entry, transaction processing, or basic accounting,” according to the paper. But unlike other recent technological advancements, AI is also capable of “performing tasks traditionally considered high-skill or technical, including coding and data analysis.”

CFOs weigh in. Roman Telerman, CFO of application security firm Black Duck, described AI skills as a requisite for the modern finance professional. “AI won’t replace your job, but somebody that knows how to use AI will replace you. And so, you have to adopt it,” Telerman told CFO Brew earlier this year.

Zachary Johnson, CFO at data-management software company Cribl, said that from his experience talking with other finance leaders, they seem to spend most of their time deploying AI in other parts of the business, such as automating support or contact-center functions.

“And then when it comes time to talk about what [CFOs are] doing specifically in our workflows, it gets pretty light,” Johnson told us in a February interview. Cribl, on the other hand, has been relatively aggressive about implementing AI in its finance function, he added.

For instance, Cribl’s finance team has used AI to shrink the time it takes to close the books from seven to five days. They’re also using an AI tool to help with accruals. Johnson said he sees opportunity to do even more in finance, but the current AI offerings aren’t quite there yet.

“What we’re looking for is more predictive AI capabilities, like around revenue recognition,” he said. “That stuff is supposed to be coming, but it seems like it’s very hard to find, honestly, out in the market.”

Additional reporting by Jesse Klein