The Question Every Finance Leader Should Be Asking This Spring

Hire for AI, or train for AI? Why framing it as a choice might be the most expensive mistake you make in 2026.

Q2 is historically one of the busiest periods for finance recruitment. Year end is behind us, budgets have been approved, and leadership teams are ready to act on the hiring plans they have been sitting on since January.

For finance and accounting functions, that pattern holds. If anything, the pressure to hire well in 2026 is more acute than it has been in years. The rapid acceleration of AI in accounting and finance is only adding to that pressure.

But there is a conversation happening in boardrooms that is not quite reaching the hiring brief. It is worth having before the job description gets written.

The skills gap that is hiding in plain sight

Most finance leaders are aware that AI is changing their function. What is less openly discussed is how exposed many teams already are as finance automation, machine learning and generative tools move into the mainstream.

Research shows that 87 percent of employees have received no training or support from their employer when it comes to AI. As a result, only a third of professionals feel they have the right skills to make effective use of AI tools.

That is not a number from the fringes of the profession. That is the mainstream. And yet 67 percent of finance and accounting hiring managers say they are willing to pay higher salaries where there is a scarcity of qualified talent, with financial reporting, agentic AI use and data analytics now commanding premium pay.

So organisations are paying more to hire AI capable talent from a market that has very little of it, while the people already inside the business remain largely untrained. In the context of AI in accounting and finance, it is worth asking whether that strategy is actually working, or whether it is simply the path of least resistance.

The case for bringing in new talent

There is a genuine argument for hiring with AI capability as a priority, and it deserves to be taken seriously.

Most organisations have moved beyond just talking about AI. Even if a team is not fully using AI today, leadership expects that they will be soon, and that expectation is already influencing how finance and accounting roles are being hired.

In a function where the pace of digital finance transformation is accelerating, waiting for existing teams to self develop may feel too slow. Some finance leaders will reasonably conclude that they need people who have already made the transition into AI enabled ways of working.

Hiring managers are also placing greater emphasis on a candidate’s appetite to learn, adaptability and comfort with technology, reflecting how quickly AI in accounting and finance is evolving.

There is also a structural argument. Demand for senior finance leaders remains strong as organisations prioritise governance, cost control and strategic planning amid uncertainty. At that level, it is reasonable to expect incoming candidates to bring digital and AI fluency with them rather than develop it entirely in post.

The case for investing in the team you have

The counter argument is equally compelling, and in some respects better supported by the evidence.

Four in five accountants already in the profession agree that automation will make their jobs easier, and 70 percent say they would join AI training if it were offered. Very few, however, have been given that opportunity. That is not a workforce resisting AI in accounting and finance. It is a workforce navigating change without adequate support, despite being willing to engage. The gap is not attitude, it is access.

The sentiment in the industry is shifting from curiosity to a demand for control. The professionals closest to your clients, systems and data are often best placed to apply human judgement to AI generated outputs. That contextual knowledge, of your business, your sector and your relationships, rarely transfers cleanly when you bring in someone new.

There is also a longer term talent pipeline consideration that deserves more airtime. History shows that hollowing out entry level development creates leadership gaps later on. While AI is already affecting junior roles, it is not replacing management skills at the same pace, and the lesson still holds.

Where this leaves finance leaders

You need fresh skills coming in, but you also need to bring your existing team on the journey. That combination is how you build a finance function that genuinely gets value from AI in accounting and finance.

The organisations that will navigate this best are not the ones that pick a side in the hire or train debate. They are the ones that stop treating it as a binary decision.

What that requires is something more deliberate than most hiring processes currently deliver. An honest audit of where AI capability already exists within your team, where the genuine gaps are, what can realistically be developed internally and at what pace, and only then what you actually need to hire for.

McKinsey's research on AI in the workplace found that 46% of business leaders identified skills gaps as a significant barrier to adoption, meaning that new roles will need to be created alongside upskilling existing staff. 

Not instead of. Alongside.

Q2 is a good time to hire. It is also a good time to make sure you know what you are hiring for. Get in touch today if you'd liek to chat through you hiring strategy.