Finance leaders face critical AI opportunity to tackle fraud as over half lag in automation

18th November, 2025 – A new report from Rossum, the market leader in Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), has found that more than half (54.2%) of finance leaders say their finance processes are only partially automated, exposing them to risk of fraud in an AI-powered world. The Document Automation Trends Report 2026: From Hype to Hard Returns surveyed 450 finance leaders across three markets (the UK, US and Germany).

As businesses move beyond the AI testing stage, they’re under pressure to harness the technology’s benefits for real-time global compliance, increased document volumes and fraud detection. According to Domino Data Lab, 88% of enterprises have improved their ability to deploy AI at scale, indicating 2026 is the year AI’s measurable ROI shines through – and the earlier the adoption, the better. If the majority of finance departments still rely on outdated technology, it reveals a significant maturity gap in enterprise automation.

While the technology exists to automate end-to-end processes, most businesses are not close to being able to implement it or reap the rewards (and 1 in 10 respondents said their processes still relied on manual data input and excel documents).

However, the appetite is there – finance leaders are hopeful about the promise of AI. Nearly half believe the opportunities of automation outweigh potential security risks, as 43.8% of finance leaders agreed there are more opportunities than risks with regard to the influence automation and AI have on the security of their business.

The report also highlights the growing risk of financial fraud, due in part to duplicate invoices, hidden delivery shortfalls and fake supplier requests. Traditional detection methods catch the damage once it’s done, and AI can catch patterns or anomalies the human eye can’t easily see. From analytics and document usage forecasting to invoice deadlines and payment cycles, being one step ahead is where AI will give finance leaders the edge. Almost a third of those surveyed (31.3%) are looking to AI to help with accuracy for financial reporting and analysis, building on their top priority of improving the accuracy of financial data.

Petr Baudiš, CTO and Co-founder at Rossum, said: “In the world of finance, the measure of AI’s value is whether it can deliver accuracy, foresight and protect against fraud – not just speed. This maturity gap is a stark reminder that legacy tools simply can’t handle today’s complexity. It’s been proven AI can eliminate manual data entry, but the next step is achieving verifiable accuracy and predictive power.”

The results also demonstrated a trust hurdle still exists for leaders’ faith in the broader value of AI. 34.2% of finance leaders measure specific operational KPIs, such as cost-per-invoice, processing time, error rates, as the main success metric for AI. This shows a granular approach, measuring outcomes tied directly to performance and cash flow rather than wider strategic impact or anecdotal evidence.

The Document Automation Trends Report 2026: From Hype to Hard Returns contains actionable steps for finance leaders, including building connected systems, establishing governance before scaling and how to shift from reactive to predictive operations.