Tipalti Releases New Report Revealing Widening "AI Trust Gap" Across Finance Teams

98% say AI is essential, yet trust, data quality, and integration hurdles are slowing momentum

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Dec. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tipalti, the AI-powered platform for finance automation, today released The State of AI in Finance: Exploring the AI Trust Gap, a new report uncovering a pivotal shift in the modern finance function: while finance teams are rapidly increasing their use of AI, many are struggling to operationalize it at scale due to growing concerns around trust, oversight, and organizational readiness.

Based on a survey of 500 finance professionals across the U.S., U.K., and Canada, the report uncovers that finance professionals are eager for AI's benefits but hesitant to scale adoption without stronger oversight and clearer visibility. While 98% of respondents believe AI is important to their finance function and 55% are extremely optimistic about its potential, the challenge remains to operationalize AI in a way that balances efficiency with transparency and control.

AI Is Delivering Measurable ROI—For Those Who Can Trust It
Finance professionals overwhelmingly recognize AI's value in improving accuracy, productivity, and decision-making. For those using AI regularly, the benefits are clear and significant: improved quality of work (98%), enhanced decision-making (97%), and cost savings (96%). While more than half of respondents regularly use AI for practical data-driven workflows—financial analysis (63%), reporting (62%), forecasting (58%), and fraud detection (57%)—the real value of AI is its ability to free finance teams from mundane, repetitive tasks so they can focus on more strategic priorities that accelerate growth and scale.

The Widening AI Trust Gap
With 61% of respondents already able to quantify AI's ROI, there's no denying the immediate and tangible benefits AI delivers to finance teams; yet, 58% express concern about AI-related risks. The greatest barriers to scaling AI across finance organizations—data privacy and security, integration with legacy systems, and a lack of in-house expertise—are widening the "AI Trust Gap" between individuals eager to adopt AI at scale and the organizations still building the foundations necessary to operationalize it.

"Finance teams are embracing AI for real, measurable impact, but only when they can trust how it operates," said Manish Vrishaketu, Chief Customer and Operating Officer at Tipalti. "The results are clear: trust is now the gating factor between incremental automation and true, strategic transformation. The future belongs to finance teams who can see what AI is doing, audit it, and scale it with confidence. Those who operationalize trust will unlock AI's full potential, not just for efficiency, but for decision-making, risk mitigation, and business growth."

Across the responses, one theme stands out: trust is the new performance metric for AI in finance. When it comes to building finance teams' trust in AI, they place the highest importance on capabilities that maintain visibility and control, including the ability to review AI actions (55%), custom-configure workflows (55%), and ensure they do not lose control of decisions to AI (54%). As AI becomes embedded across reporting, compliance, payments, forecasting, and strategic planning, the gap between organizations that trust and scale AI and those that do not will widen.

2026: The Year Finance Turns AI Trust Into Operational Reality
This emphasis on trust and explainability underscores a defining theme for the year ahead: 2026 will be the year finance teams operationalize trust in AI through governance, training, transparency, and better data quality. Looking ahead, finance professionals expect AI to permeate every part of the function, from smarter fraud prevention to predictive forecasting and deeper process integration. Before that future can be realized, teams are calling for more foundational AI investments: stronger governance frameworks (52%), clearer accountability for AI decisions (47%), improved data lineage and quality controls (45%), and broader role-specific training (43%).

Ultimately, the report points to a defining moment for the finance function. AI's promise is no longer in question, but its full impact depends on trust. To gain a competitive edge in 2026, finance teams must standardize AI oversight, establish consistent methods for measuring and improving real-world impact, and ensure that human expertise remains at the center of the finance function. The differentiator will be whether organizations can operationalize trust, transforming AI from a promising tool into an intelligent, dependable engine for growth, compliance, and strategic insight.

To read The State of AI in Finance: Exploring the AI Trust Gap in full, visit here.

About the Report
The State of AI in Finance was conducted in partnership with Rob Roy Consulting and Cambia Information Group in September 2025. The survey includes responses from 500 finance professionals across roles, seniority levels, and company sizes. Full methodology is available in the report.

About Tipalti 
Tipalti is the AI-powered platform for finance automation, elevating how finance teams operate in the global economy. We empower our customers to scale faster and smarter by removing the complexities of doing global business and accelerating their finance operations efficiency. Our platform provides a comprehensive suite of finance automation solutions designed for mid-market businesses across accounts payable, global payouts, procurement, employee expenses, corporate cards, supplier management, tax compliance, and treasury. Tipalti partners with leading financial institutions such as Citi, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan, and Visa, enabling over 5,000 global companies to efficiently and securely pay millions of suppliers and payees across 200+ countries and territories, in 120 currencies. For more information, visit tipalti.com.

SOURCE Tipalti