The largest year-over-year rise in job mentions that require artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities is the role of accountant, according to a new report from AI-native financial platform Datarails.
In January 2026, 30% of accountant job roles mentioned AI compared to 18% in January 2025—a 67% increase.
“Menlo Park [California] based medical startup, Hello Hearts, requires its new senior accountant to “identify and implement process improvements, including automation and AI-enabled solutions, to increase efficiency and accuracy,” while the senior accountant at Faire, an online wholesale marketplace, must have “interest in or experience applying AI or automation tools to improve accounting workflows,” Datarails said in its report, The CFO’s Office 2.0.
Datarails analyzed more than 5,000 US job postings across four core finance roles (CFO, financial planning and analysis, controller, and accountant) between January 2025 and January 2026.
These jobs were advertised on major job portals, including Job Board, LinkedIn, Careerbuilder, Glassdoor, Indeed, Job2Careers, Monsters, and ZipRecruiter.
“This report reveals a transformed picture of the competencies needed to land top jobs in the CFO’s office in 2026—and beyond,” Datarails said.
The biggest requirement for AI skills emerges in the FP&A role, 43% of job listings, up from 33% of listings. Mentions of AI for the controller role also rose 4%, and the need for AI skills is now found in 24% of controller job ads.
One-third (31%) of all jobs explicitly mention AI or machine learning across CFO job listings, compared to one-quarter (25%) in January 2025. Looking across specific roles, in January 2026, 27% of CFO job listings required familiarity with AI—the same as in January 2025.
Salaries only increased for CFOs
Based on January job listings, salaries for CFOs are trending upwards while other finance roles are compressing. CFO lower-range salaries climbed 9% year over year (January 2026 vs. January 2025) to $176,000, with upper-range salaries rising 3% to $219,000.
However, CFO is the only finance role where compensation increased. Lower-range salaries dropped 3% for the role of accountant—from $92,000 in January 2025 to $89,000 in January 2026. Upper-range salaries for accountants also fell to $111,000 in January 2026 from $123,000 in January 2026.
“The market is concentrating value at the top of the finance function while applying automation pressure to the roles beneath it,” Datarails said in the report.
Remote work is on the decline
Three of the four roles Datarails analyzed—accountant (-9%), controller (-8%), and FP&A (-3%)—saw declines in the offering of remote positions. Only the CFO role saw a marginal increase (+1%) representing 14% of CFO listings.
The best chance of remote working is for an accountant role, which, despite a decrease, is offered in one-quarter (25%) of accountant listings, the report says.
Other key findings
Additional key findings from the report include:
- Business partnering surged across all roles, as the CFO is no longer a numbers person: More than one in three CFO job postings (35%) now lists business partnering as a core requirement, up from around one in four (26%) in 2025. FP&A partnering requirements rose 12 percentage points to 57%, while nearly one-quarter of accountant job descriptions now reference partnering skills.
- Financial storytelling is emerging as a premium skill: FP&A postings referencing storytelling or narrative capabilities rose by 40%, up to 7% from 5%. For accountants, storytelling skills decreased from 2% to 1% of job postings.
- Modeling and budgeting skills are displacing customer service: Financial modeling rose 12.4% for accountants and 12.9% for controllers, while customer service skills fell sharply across CFO (-18.5%), controller (-14.5%), and accountant (-9.2%) roles.
- MBA demand is rising where it matters most: MBA requirements for FP&A roles jumped 13 percentage points to 39%, reflecting growing demand for strategic business acumen in the function closest to decision-making. MBA requirements for accountant roles dropped from 6% in 2025 to 1% in 2026.
“This data confirms what we see every day working with finance teams: AI is not replacing the CFO’s office, it is redefining it,” Didi Gurfinkel, CEO and co-founder of Datarails, said in a statement. “The finance professionals who will thrive are those who combine AI fluency with strategic thinking and the ability to tell a compelling story with data. They will largely continue to do it working with Excel, which remains central to finance—whether or not the industry wants to admit it.”
Photo illustration credit: Atlas Studio/iStock
Thanks for reading CPA Practice Advisor!
Subscribe Already registered? Log In
Need more information? Read the FAQs
