CFOs' perspective on the adoption and impact of emerging technologies

Deloitte China CFO Program has recently conducted a survey in February to March 2018, with the objective of gauging opinions from China CFOs on a wide range of topics, including the economy, the industry, their companies, as well as emerging technologies.  With the feedbacks we have collected from 138 CFOs, survey report has been complied with the findings, which we believed that this survey report would be a good reference for benchmarking and CFO’s peer comparison.

Key findings

• Detrimental government policy/regulation still perceived to have the highest-impact risk to an organization, while disruptive technology is on the radar

• Key strategic drivers for new technology adoption: ‘Improving Efficiency’, ‘Improving the Decision-making Process’ and ‘Reducing Operating Expenses.’ However, concerns over cost and achieving internal buy-in is slowing the uptake of emerging technologies

• Cloud is the most popular emerging technology companies have adopted, however its adoption rate will be surpassed

• Using a third-party to acquire emerging technology is a popular option

• Adoption of emerging technology to the finance function is facing barriers and progressing at a slower than expected rate

• Wider and more aggressive adoption is needed
  
• CFOs as influencers, users and evaluators