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: high confidence in managing risk, rapid AI adoption, and a clear gap between how advanced finance teams believe they are and how much of the daily work is still done by hand.

Finance leaders across Northern Europe feel in control of risk, have adopted AI almost universally, and rate their own capabilities highly. But underneath that confidence, the operating model is still catching up. That is the central finding of the Collectia Group CFO Outlook 2026, a survey of 150 CFOs, finance directors, and heads of credit conducted in April 2026.

"The finance leaders in this study are confident and capable, and they are right to be. But confidence is not the same as readiness. The ones who close the gap between how advanced they feel and how their day-to-day operation actually runs are 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 understand how finance leaders are responding to economic uncertainty, rising efficiency demands, and fast AI adoption. What came back was a picture of capable leaders managing a more demanding role than the one they took on a few years ago, often on operational foundations that have not kept pace.
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The macro squeeze is the baseline

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

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

‍96% feel confident managing financial risk over the next 12 months. Only 29% describe their credit and collections setup as fully integrated and data-driven. Even teams that consider themselves automated still reconcile payments, chase customers, and score credit by hand. The gap between feeling in control and being operationally ready is the paradox at the centre of the study.
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Governance is the hidden brake

‍When finance leaders name what is slowing AI down, none of the top barriers are technical. Cost and unclear ROI (61%), skills gaps (56%), and governance concerns (50%) lead. The next phase of AI in finance will be defined less by better algorithms than by the controls, skills, and proof organisations build around them.
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Late payments have become the new normal

‍Of every pressure finance leaders describe, the one they feel daily is customer payment behaviour. It is their top financial risk and, by a wide margin, the single biggest reason they would change credit partner. Credit management has shifted from a back-office function to a strategic one.

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

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Key figures

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

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

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

‍Anders Berg
+46 70-571 25 93
‍anders@cruxcomms.se

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