Rethinking finance teams and closing the talent gap
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Nearly 55 % of CFOs and finance leaders identify the most crucial concern regarding finance talent shortages in 2025. Finding the right talent to fill the skills gap for finance roles is becoming more challenging due to the swiftly evolving complexities in financial services and technology. Unfortunately, the number of skilled finance professionals is decreasing, which makes it difficult for traditional finance teams to stay up-to-date.
As hiring alone becomes an unsustainable talent strategy, CFOs must reevaluate their methods by incorporating automation and AI-driven tools. This integration can streamline finance operations, improve compliance, and lessen manual workloads. These advanced technologies allow finance professionals to concentrate on high-value strategic initiatives and critical decision-making instead of mundane administrative duties. Committing to digital transformation and workforce development addresses the talent gap and fosters a more agile finance function that can propel business growth.
The days of spreadsheet wizards manually crunching numbers until midnight are (thankfully) history. The future of finance depends on a proactive approach.
Let’s explore what this future could look like!
Key factors driving the talent shortage
The finance talent gap is widening as workloads increase, technical skill requirements evolve, and businesses struggle to attract and retain the right professionals. Finance teams and CFO are taking on more strategic and data-driven roles, yet many are weighed down by manual routines that slow operations and contribute to overwork.
A significant difficulty lies in the increasing shortage of skills in finance and technology. Numerous professionals do not possess practical experience with AI, automation, and data analytics, which are now vital for enhancing finance functions, boosting efficiency, and increasing profitability. Concurrently, soft skills such as leadership, adaptability, and problem-solving have become more crucial, yet they often do not receive adequate attention in conventional finance career trajectories.
Retention is another pressing issue: Heavy workloads, obsolete workflows, or limited career progression opportunities push skilled finance professionals toward industries that embrace automation and digital transformation. Meanwhile, younger talent is increasingly drawn to fintech and consulting, often considering the career path of traditional finance roles rigid and outdated.
To close this talent gap, CFOs should focus on upskilling and reskilling their teams, equipping existing teams with technical skills and strategic decision-making abilities. Additionally, leveraging artificial intelligence and automation can help reduce tedious manual tasks, improve real-time efficiency, and make finance careers more engaging. This can create a future-proof finance team while creating a more agile and resilient workforce.
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A new approach to talent and operations
Today’s talent pool is more diverse than ever—but so is the competition. That’s why businesses’ talent strategy also needs to focus on upgrading their teams’ skills, streamlining workflows to eliminate wasted effort, and embracing automation and AI to boost productivity. By combining these strategies, finance leaders can build flexible, future-ready teams with the right skills to handle digital transformation, complex regulations, and changing business needs.
Reskilling and upskilling finance teams
The finance sector is experiencing an increasing skills gap as professionals must advance beyond simple transaction processing to keep up with data analytics, forecasting, machine learning, and the digital transformation of our industry. Many teams lack the digital skills to effectively leverage automation tools, AI-driven financial analyses, or cloud services. Investing in continuous learning programs, opportunities for career development, and certifications that equip employees with technical and soft skills is crucial. On the other hand, strong problem-solving abilities, adaptability, and strategic thinking are becoming equally important alongside financial expertise.
Expanding an organisation’s workforce’s skill set can reduce its dependence on external hiring while improving retention and building a more resilient workforce. Collaboration with IT and data science teams can accelerate skill acquisition through knowledge sharing and practical application. When finance teams create a culture that rewards continuous learning and innovation, it encourages finance professionals to embrace new technologies rather than resist change.
Optimising finance workflows to reduce bottlenecks
At the same time, finance workflows must be optimised to reduce inefficiencies that put additional strain on already stretched teams. Many finance functions still rely on manual processes that slow down operations, increase errors, and limit strategic decision-making. Companies that streamline approvals, automate compliance checks, and eliminate redundant tasks can dramatically improve efficiency. Real-time access to financial data allows teams to make faster, data-driven decisions while reducing administrative overhead. By rethinking traditional workflows, businesses can empower finance professionals to focus on risk management, financial planning, and business growth rather than repetitive, low-value tasks.
Embracing AI and automation for greater efficiency
AI and automation are transforming entire industries, including finance functions. This can help tackle talent shortages and boost operational efficiency in exciting ways. AI-powered finance tools make processes smoother as they automatically validate transactions, identify anomalies, and enhance forecasting accuracy. This frees teams from time-consuming tasks like invoice processing, expense approvals, and reconciliations. Now, finance professionals are empowered to concentrate on impactful strategic initiatives. This automation boosts accuracy and compliance and helps finance teams stay agile and well-prepared for the future in our ever-evolving digital financial landscape.
How AI and automation can bridge the talent gap
These days, finance departments are feeling the squeeze to achieve more with the resources available to them. While automation and artificial intelligence are becoming vital for streamlining processes, some finance teams struggle due to a shortage of professionals transitioning from routine tasks to strategic planning and decision-making.
Traditional financial tasks such as inputting data or handling invoices and reconciliations tend to hamper operations by introducing delays and raising the likelihood of mistakes and fraudulent activities occurring accidentally or intentionally by individuals involved in the process. Utilising AI-driven automation can effectively eradicate these inefficiencies in manual processes and guarantee smoother and more precise financial procedures overall. This transformation allows finance departments to redirect their attention towards areas like predicting financial trends accurately while also managing risks effectively and fostering the expansion of the business instead of getting bogged down by mundane responsibilities.
In today’s financial landscape, AI-driven tools support compliance by enforcing policies, automatically detecting real-time anomalies, and improving audit preparedness. Expense management powered by AI and transformation initiatives enhances transparency, reduces compliance risks, and strengthens financial controls—key functions needed in the business world after the pandemic.
In order to keep finance employees on board and motivated at work for the long run, CFOs need to create a stimulating and forward-thinking work environment. Using old-fashioned manual methods leads to exhaustion and steers finance experts toward sectors that adopt automation. By incorporating AI technology and providing finance professionals with training in new areas, companies can enhance job fulfilment, decrease staff turnover rates and safeguard the future of their finance operations.
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How Yokoy uses automation and AI to close the talent gap
Yokoy’s AI-driven automation provides a one-stop solution by centralising expense management, streamlining compliance, and improving financial visibility. This reduces administrative burdens and allows your finance professionals to focus on strategy, risk management, and decision-making rather than manual tasks.
Powerful, purpose-built AI
Yokoy is built to optimise spend management by automating data capture and validation and enhancing compliance in all financial processes. Yokoy’s AI continuously evolves by learning from financial data, improving accuracy, detecting anomalies, and enforcing policies across multiple jurisdictions. It leverages predictive and prescriptive AI models to make managing your spending smoother and easier.
Automating how data is captured and validated helps enhance compliance for all financial processes. Yokoy improves accuracy, can spot anomalies, and helps to enforce policies everywhere it operates. You get real-time insights and simplified workflows for complex tasks. This means less manual effort for you and faster financial operations, all while minimising errors and preventing fraud. As regulations evolve, finance teams can enjoy greater consistency and confidence!
Automated tax readouts
Yokoy’s automated tax readouts streamline compliance by applying country-specific tax rules in real time, eliminating the need for manual verification and reducing the risk of errors. AI-driven automation ensures accurate tax calculations, recoverable VAT identification, and seamless expense processing, helping finance teams maintain compliance across multiple jurisdictions. By removing administrative burdens and improving efficiency, Yokoy allows finance professionals to focus on strategic tasks rather than time-consuming tax reconciliations.
Automated mileage reimbursements
Yokoy simplifies mileage reimbursement through its AI-powered solution, automatically calculating distances, applying the correct rates, and integrating seamlessly with existing financial systems. The platform ensures compliance by cross-referencing claims with company policies and regulations while identifying potential fraudulent activities. By automating this intricate process, Yokoy helps ease the administrative load for your finance teams.
Custom workflows
Your organisation has unique financial processes, and Yokoy’s automation technology is here to adapt to those unique needs. Your finance team can easily create customisable workflows to automate approvals, categorise expenses, and help ensure policy compliance. By defining approval hierarchies and enhancing communication across departments, finance functions become smoother and more responsive. This flexibility means you can focus less on repetitive administrative tasks and dedicate more time to impactful financial activities.
Country-specific controls
Keeping up with local tax laws, expense regulations, and financial reporting standards can be daunting if your business operates across different regions. Yokoy’s AI-driven platform offers helpful, country-specific controls that automatically apply the proper regional tax rates, support local expense policies, and conduct real-time compliance checks. Its smart fraud detection boosts financial oversight, adjusting to the unique regulatory environment of each country. By simplifying these complex processes, Yokoy empowers finance teams to focus on strategic planning, allowing them to step away from the tangled web of regulatory issues.
Next steps
Finance teams are juggling more than ever—manual tasks, compliance headaches, and never-ending approvals. But what if AI could handle the heavy lifting for you?
Book a demo today and see how Yokoy’s smart automation can give your team more time for strategy.
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