Top Trends in Finance and Accounting for 2025
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
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A new year is fast approaching, so it’s time to discuss the trends we expect for 2025. For finance and accounting, it will be interesting to see how AI will continue to reshape how we work and how humans can leverage this to our advantage and elevate ourselves into new roles.
Before we discuss the top trends, let’s consider the top ten priorities for CFOs in 2024, highlighted below.
We have seen most actions on bringing down debt, with companies seeking efficiency gains and productivity improvements. We also saw strides towards embracing ESG reporting, although there are significant regional differences. Finally, the Generative AI wave continued to rage, and it’s safe to say that it’s coming to systems near you in 2025!
One activity we strongly urge CFOs to invest in is managing their data. This is the foundation for leveraging AI and a must-fix now. If you haven’t started, don’t wait for 2025—start today!
As we start discussing the top trends for 2025, it’s important to distinguish between a trend and something that will have a real impact. An example is Blockchain. Every year, it’s highlighted as a trend that will impact how we work, but another year has passed without us seeing any noticeable impact on finance and accounting. Hence, the trends we raise are just as much topics to be on the lookout for as they are something to consider actively for your finance function.
Top trends in 2025
This brings us to the top trends for finance and accounting in 2025. There are many to consider, but we chose a smaller pick to help CFOs and senior finance leaders focus their efforts. Here are our top five trends for 2025:
Let’s review each of them in more detail. We will spend five weeks deep-diving into each trend, so stay tuned for much more!
AI-Driven Strategic Finance
While AI has been used for automation and basic analysis in recent years, the trend in 2025 shifts towards AI as a strategic advisor. Finance teams increasingly leverage AI for automation and strategic tasks like scenario planning, risk management, and decision-making support.
Circular Economy Accounting
As sustainability becomes a non-negotiable business imperative, finance teams increasingly need to account for circular economy models. This includes tracking carbon credits, measuring the financial impact of recycling efforts, and integrating sustainability metrics into financial KPIs.
Hyper Personalized Financial Management Tools
In 2025, there will be a surge in the availability and use of hyper-personalized financial management platforms tailored to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These tools leverage AI and machine learning to offer bespoke financial planning, budgeting, and cash flow management solutions.
Real-Time ESG Auditing and Assurance Services
With regulatory pressure intensifying, there will be a move towards real-time auditing and assurance for ESG factors using advanced monitoring tools and IoT data streams. This approach aims to continuously verify and validate ESG compliance beyond annual reporting cycles.
Strategic Business Partnering
As finance becomes increasingly complex, roles in finance teams must evolve with a stronger emphasis on specialization. This shift also intensifies the need for effective business partnering within finance. Finance professionals are not only required to have technical expertise but must also act as strategic advisors.
You may think many of these are buzzwords, but I would like to highlight circular economy accounting and real-time ESG auditing. I have seen first-hand from an ERP provider how this is already integrated into the system. It will start with carbon accounting, but many other metrics will follow. Moreover, ESG reporting will become like regular financial reporting with all the same desired functionalities.
What should you do now?
The easiest answer would be “Nothing.” These are trends to watch and consider when positioning yourself. The better answer is understanding how to get ahead of these trends. Depending on whether you work with processes impacted by AI, ESG initiatives, or business partnering, you should start to position yourself.
Don’t wait for change to come to you, but grab the bull by its horns and be a winner in 2025! Over the coming weeks, we will share practical and actionable tips you can leverage to get ahead. How much did your finance function progress on the priorities for 2024? What do you think about the top trends for 2025? What will you do to position yourself to be a winner?
This was the first article in a new series looking ahead to 2025. You can read the articles from our previous series on finance driving value creation below. Remember to subscribe to be notified when we publish future articles.
Catch our latest series, "Finance 2035 - what Finance will look like a decade from now" below.
You can catch our previous series, "Hacking the Annual Wheel in Finance." below.
Continue reading below for more articles about trends in finance and accounting.
Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder and a partner at Business Partnering Institute and the owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn, which has more than 12,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner,” a long-time Finance Blogger, a LinkedIn Learning instructor, and a Top Voice on LinkedIn with 375,000+ followers.
Assistant Professor at VVCE, Mysore
1wLooks great
OK Boštjan Dolinšek
General Manager EURODISA
2wExcellent article, Anders. It is very useful to have an overview of the main trends in finance and accounting for 2025. I like how you highlight the importance of automation, data analysis and digital transformation. It is crucial for companies to adapt to these changes in order to remain competitive. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. Reviewing some reports from the Mundia forum about investments in issues of environmental care, global warming, zero emissions and others, to date we do not have statistical data that allows us to read the results of so many years of investment without tangible results. It would be good for the officials in charge of the world bureaucracy to read your article.
Retired
2wAnders, you are a genius!
Strategic Finance Leader | Driving Profitability, Operational Efficiency & Data-Driven Decision Making | CFO-Level Expertise
2wCertainly! You made a valid prediction that AI and machine learning are becoming more important in strategic advisory services for finance and accounting. Recent advancements like LLM models are enhancing decision-making and accuracy. There is also a rise in sustainable and socially responsible investing, increasing the need for ESG data and analysis. Currently I am exploring this area but still couldn’t figure it out where to start. Blockchain technology is seen as a way to boost transparency and reduce fraud in financial transactions. Adapting to these changes will help companies succeed in the future. You didn’t t mention though so I wonder what is your stand point in Blockchain technology?