Confident finance leaders, but the systems lag behind

A new survey of 150 senior finance leaders across Denmark,Norway, Sweden, and Germany finds a finance function in transition: highconfidence in managing risk, rapid AI adoption, and a clear gap between howadvanced finance teams believe they are and how much of the daily work is stilldone by hand.

Finance leaders across NorthernEurope feel in control of risk, have adopted AI almost universally, and ratetheir own capabilities highly. But underneath that confidence, the operatingmodel is still catching up. That is the central finding of the Collectia GroupCFO Outlook 2026, a survey of 150 CFOs, finance directors, and heads of creditconducted in April 2026.

"The finance leaders in this study are confident and capable, and they are right tobe. But confidence is not the same as readiness. The ones who close the gapbetween how advanced they feel and how their day-to-day operation actually runsare the ones who will pull ahead as the environment gets tougher."

- Jesper Eiby, CEO of Collectia Group.

^{Jesper Eiby, CEO of Collectia Group.}

The study set out to understandhow finance leaders are responding to economic uncertainty, rising efficiencydemands, and fast AI adoption. What came back was a picture of capable leadersmanaging a more demanding role than the one they took on a few years ago, oftenon operational foundations that have not kept pace.
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The macrosqueeze is the baseline

‍‍Finance leaders are not managinga single shock. They describe three pressures at once: the cost of money, thecost of operating, and the cost of doing business with customers who pay laterthan they used to. The tone is measured rather than alarmed, but the margin forerror is thinner than it was.
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AI is everywhere, its value is uneven

‍94% of finance leaders now useAI somewhere in the finance function, and half say it is embedded in keyprocesses. None reported no engagement with AI at all. Yet 61% cannot clearlydemonstrate the return. Where AI delivers, the wins are concrete rather thantransformational: customer segmentation, risk prediction, and collections.Finance leaders have stopped asking whether to use AI and started askingwhether the AI they use is doing real work.
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Confidenceruns ahead of operational reality

‍96% feel confident managingfinancial risk over the next 12 months. Only 29% describe their credit andcollections setup as fully integrated and data-driven. Even teams that considerthemselves automated still reconcile payments, chase customers, and scorecredit by hand. The gap between feeling in control and being operationallyready is the paradox at the centre of the study.
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Governance isthe hidden brake

‍When finance leaders name whatis slowing AI down, none of the top barriers are technical. Cost and unclearROI (61%), skills gaps (56%), and governance concerns (50%) lead. The nextphase of AI in finance will be defined less by better algorithms than by thecontrols, skills, and proof organisations build around them.
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Late paymentshave become the new normal

‍Of every pressure financeleaders describe, the one they feel daily is customer payment behaviour. It istheir top financial risk and, by a wide margin, the single biggest reason theywould change credit partner. Credit management has shifted from a back-officefunction to a strategic one.

The full report goes deeper intoeach finding. It is available here: https://cfosurveydata.com/

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Key figures

‍●     96% feel confidentmanaging risk, but only 29% have fullyintegrated systems.
●     94% use AI in finance,61% can't prove the return.
●     Late payments: the toprisk and the main reason to switch credit partner. 
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About the survey

‍The findings are based on asurvey of 150 senior finance decision-makers, including CFOs (44%), financedirectors (41%), and heads of credit (15%), across Denmark, Norway, Sweden, andGermany. The survey was conducted in April 2026. Figures refer to the regionaltotal unless a specific market is named, and are rounded to the nearest wholepercent. 
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About Collectia

‍Collectia is a technology-drivencredit management company headquartered in Copenhagen, with local offices inNorway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany. The company serves more than 40,000customers by combining advanced technology with experienced local teams.Through a global partner network, Collectia also offers debt collection andcredit management solutions in more than 50 countries. Collectia is owned bySilverfleet Capital.
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Press contact

‍Anders Berg
+4670-571 25 93
‍anders@cruxcomms.se

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