For Nordic finance leaders, the conversation about artificial intelligence is moving beyond whether AI will become part of their operations to how much responsibility it should be given. That question was central to CCH Tagetik Nordics inTouch 2026, alongside uneven levels of digital maturity and the need for trust and control.
Wolters Kluwer's Future Ready CFO 2026 report, based on a global survey of 1,672 senior finance leaders across more than 20 markets, found that 47% identified AI adoption and implementation as the most impactful global trend. 87% said expectations of CFOs were expanding as AI becomes embedded in enterprise decision-making.
The research also identified an important constraint. Only 18% of organizations surveyed considered themselves digitally advanced, defined by real-time capabilities, automation at scale, and continuous optimization.
At Nordics inTouch, that gap between AI ambition and operational maturity raised a practical question about how far organizations are ready to go.
Where should AI be given greater autonomy?
Established, repeatable finance processes may be the most appropriate place to give AI more latitude, particularly where risks and controls can be clearly defined.
As AI enters close, reporting, planning, and compliance, organizations must decide where it should be allowed to act and how those actions can be controlled and explained.
In an informal live poll, 58 attendees showed considerably more comfort giving AI autonomy over transaction matching and reconciliations than over other activities:
- 83% selected transaction matching and reconciliations
- 38% selected financial planning and forecasting
- 34% selected financial close
- 34% selected management reporting and analysis
Putting greater autonomy into practice requires organizations to build the right foundations. Fortum offered one example of how that can take shape. The energy company described its digital transformation as building a foundation, supported by harmonized processes, an integrated technology platform, high-quality data, and embedded AI.
Fortum developed an AI strategy and roadmap, piloted AI use cases, and established an AI governance process focused on realizing business value. Its approach includes using embedded AI from platform providers, including CCH Tagetik, rather than building everything internally.
“The conversation is moving beyond where finance can use AI to where it can be trusted with greater responsibility,” said Niklas Öhrström, Associate Director, Strategic Accounts for Wolters Kluwer CCH Tagetik. “The opportunity is to identify the processes where AI can deliver value while maintaining accuracy, data quality, governance, and accountability. This will be critical as Nordic teams consider how far and how quickly to scale AI.”
What is needed to build trust in AI?
As systems take on more responsibility, organizations need governed data, embedded controls, clear workflows and approvals, audit trails, and explainability. Teams must be able to understand what changed, why it changed, and who approved it.
The attendee polling reinforced the importance of these foundations. Proven accuracy over time was selected by 27% as a factor that would increase trust in AI financial decisions, closely followed by strong data quality and consistency at 25%. Clear governance and accountability and human oversight were each selected by 16%.
When respondents considered what would give them confidence to significantly expand AI use, demonstrated accuracy led at 42%, followed by better quality and consistency of underlying data at 39% and clear accountability and governance frameworks at 27%.
Where can AI deliver the greatest value?
The expanding CFO mandate described in the Future Ready CFO research extends well beyond traditional responsibilities. 53% of respondents said CFOs own digital transformation, while 42% identified responsibility for capital allocation, and 40% for risk management.
The Nordic attendee polling echoed both priorities. The most frequently selected opportunity for AI was productivity and efficiency, at 41%. Deeper business insights from data followed at 27%, with faster decision-making at 13%, and improved forecasting and planning accuracy at 11%.
From AI adoption to trusted autonomy
As AI becomes capable of taking on more work, leaders must decide where autonomy makes sense, what should remain under finance control and what evidence is required before that boundary can move.
For Nordic organizations, the priority is to determine how far AI can act independently without sacrificing control.
