AI Adoption Surges, but Planning Gaps Persist: Vena's 2025 Industry Report Reveals What's Next for FP&A Teams
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57% of finance teams are using AI, but most still face major challenges with data silos, manual workflows and operational maturity
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Vena, the only agentic AI-powered FP&A platform purpose-built to fully amplify the Microsoft technology ecosystem, today released its 2025 State of Strategic Finance industry report, revealing that while finance teams are embracing AI and stepping into more strategic roles, most are still held back by fragmented data, manual workflows and uneven adoption of intelligent planning tools.
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Developed in partnership with BPM Partners and based on a survey of over 200 senior finance professionals across North America, the report captures a profession in transition—optimistic and increasingly influential, but still in the early stages of realizing the full potential of AI-powered, integrated business planning.
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'Finance leaders today face growing pressure to provide insights amid volatile markets, rising data volumes and an accelerating business pace to help stakeholders address complex problems,' said Allison Munro, Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer at Vena.
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'Finance teams are stepping up to the challenge, but the report shows there's still work to be done, especially when it comes to system integration, deeper automation and the full adoption of agentic AI for real-time planning.'
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Highlights from the 2025 Report Include:
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AI Gains Ground, but Depth Still Lacking: While adoption is rising, most AI deployments remain limited to data analysis and reporting. Generative and agentic AI, which can surface important insights and answer complex questions from across the business to drive faster, more agile decision making, remains underutilized.
Excel's Grip Remains Firm: Despite modern planning tools, 89% of finance teams still depend on Excel. The most cited planning challenge was poor integration between systems, named by 36% of respondents.
Finance Is Now a Strategic Driver: 48% of finance teams are deeply embedded in business-wide strategic planning—up from 40% in 2022. Meanwhile, 92% of respondents feel confident in their team's ability to lead the business in its performance strategy in 2025.
Headcount Is Stable—But Demand Is Rising: 81% said their team is adequately staffed, yet 72% plan to grow their finance headcount this year. While the exact drivers vary, 21% of respondents cited revising organizational design as a top operational priority, suggesting that how finance leaders structure and deploy talent is a key focus in 2025.
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'What stood out most this year is the shift in how finance teams are embracing AI,' said Craig Schiff, President and Lead Analyst at BPM Partners. 'Just a year ago, AI wasn't even on the radar for many teams—now it's a key purchase driver. But as adoption picks up, we're also seeing a widening gap between teams moving forward with meaningful AI initiatives and those still stuck in legacy workflows. Closing that gap will be essential to driving faster, more strategic decisions across the business.'
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Building on the success of Vena Copilot for FP&A, which has been helping FP&A teams drive faster, more agile planning and strategic decision making since its debut at Excelerate 2024, Vena will be debuting its next wave of game-changing AI innovation in May at Excelerate Finance 2025. The next evolution of AI is here to unlock the power of FP&A across the business.
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