Gartner Finance Symposium/Xpo 2026 National Harbor: Day 1 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from the Gartner Finance Symposium/Xpo 2026, taking place this week in National Harbor, MD. Below is a collection of key announcements and insights coming out of the conference.

On day one of the conference we are highlighting the sessions CFO Risk Watch: Bridging Awareness and Action on Top Emerging Risks, How Role Composition Must Evolve, Starting Now andFrom AI Proposal to AI Payoff: Evaluating, Selecting and Prioritizing Your AI Use Cases to Drive Results. Be sure to check this page throughout the day for updates.

Gartner Says CFOs Risk Falling Behind Without a Scalable AI Strategy

Presented by  Janel Everly, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner

As emerging risk has increased and intensified, most enterprises today have been challenged to have proper operational readiness to respond. In this session, Janel Everly, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, explained how CFOs can address emerging risks and close the operational readiness gap. 

• According to a recent Gartner survey, 56% of surveyed non-executive board directors believe organizations should increase their risk appetite over the next 12 months to deliver shareholder value.
• If organizations take on more risk, they must reevaluate their operational resilience and readiness around emerging risk as the risk of losing competitive relevance heightens.
• The most common breakdown in enterprise risk management (ERM) stems not from the risks themselves, but from confusion over roles, responsibilities, timing, and the flow of critical information.
• CFOs play a vital role in sustaining organizational resilience: navigating both transformational changes, and the resulting compounded operational challenges. 
• We refer to organizations that are most effective at managing enterprise risk as, “risk intelligent” organizations. They treat ERM as an always-on business capability that accelerates business strategy, not a way to just resolve threats to strategy. 

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Janel Everly by contacting Rob van der Meulen at rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com.

Presented by Markus Hofbauer, Senior Director at Gartner

Finance organizations can no longer rely on traditional pyramid-shaped role structures as AI automates more knowledge work. In this session, Markus Hofbauer, Senior Director at Gartner, explained how humans will become AI-Augmented decision orchestrators more focused on designing how humans and AI work together.

• AI is undermining the traditional finance talent pyramid by reducing the need for large entry-level cohorts and multiple layers of supervision.
• Finance is shifting toward a smaller, leaner and more tech-intensive “diamond” shape as knowledge work is automated and roles are redesigned.
• Entry roles will increasingly favor technologists who can learn finance, work effectively with AI and build system-enabled productivity.
• Middle-layer roles will become fewer but more consequential, with greater responsibility for AI-enabled decision making through shared jobs where humans use judgment to oversee AI and collaborate with AI.
• Finance leaders will take on expanded accountability for architecting human–AI systems, defining decision rights between humans and machines, and ensuring effective governance of increasingly autonomous financial processes.

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Markus Hofbauer by contacting Rob van der Meulen at rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com.

Presented by Ash Mehta, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

CFOs need a structured way to evaluate AI use cases if they want to turn experimentation into measurable business results. In this session, Ash Mehta, Senior Director analyst at Gartner, outlined a three-part approach that starts with net business value, expands to feasibility beyond the technical build, and tests whether a use case can scale across the enterprise.

• Only a small minority of finance organizations are measuring ROI from AI, making structured evaluation essential before scaling investment.
• CFOs should start with net business value, weighing quantitative and qualitative benefits against both direct and indirect costs.
• Feasibility should be assessed across technical feasibility, the external landscape and internal readiness rather than technology alone.
• Internal readiness depends on data, skills and culture, all of which can limit AI impact if they are overlooked.
• AI use cases should be prioritized as a portfolio, balancing value, feasibility and scalability to identify quick wins, priorities, moonshots and deferrals.

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Ash Mehta by contacting Rob van der Meulen at rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com.