Economic conditions and inflationary pressures, followed by cyber threats and rising labor costs, are the top near-term concerns for finance chiefs, according to the 2025 Executive Perspectives on Top Risks global survey.
Economic concerns dominate: Interrelated market forces, including deglobalization, tariffs and trade barriers, geopolitical tensions highlighted by U.S.-China relations, as well as various regional conflicts such as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, are contributing to economic uncertainty.
Bottom line: The next two to three years will likely see ongoing and rapid shifts in business conditions, with similar levels of volatility expected over the long term. CFOs will need to stay on top of these challenges.
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It starts with the economy, of course.
That slogan would do in a pinch if CFOs needed one to emphasize their top near-term risks. Economic conditions and inflationary pressures, followed by cyber threats and rising labor costs, are the top near-term concerns for finance chiefs, according to the 2025 Executive Perspectives on Top Risks global survey, conducted by Protiviti and NC State University’s ERM Initiative. These same risks also sit atop the list of long-term concerns for CFOs as they look out over the next decade, indicating that their most significant near-term concerns are persistent long-term.
The economy’s top billing on CFOs’ list of risk concerns is no surprise. Fortunately, few, if any, finance leaders will need to do much internal campaigning to ensure these concerns are addressed. In the survey, CFOs align with board members, CEOs and other senior executives (1,215 global respondents in total) in their assessments of the most pressing macroeconomic, strategic and operational risks.
All leaders rate economic conditions, cyber threats and various talent management issues (labor costs, talent availability, retention, succession planning and more) as their top risks. That said, deeper survey findings shed light on the CFO’s unique perspectives concerning artificial intelligence (AI), volatility in the global regulatory environment, financial planning and analysis (FP&A) challenges, the twin needs for technology modernization and cost optimization, and more. These finer data points are worth probing given that they can lead to valuable recalibrations in how CFOs work with boards, CEOs and other C-suite colleagues to assess, prioritize and mitigate risks.
‘Forever risks’: economic uncertainty, cyber threats and talent
For context’s sake, here are the full descriptions of each of the CFO’s top three near-term risks that we used in the survey:
- Economic conditions (including inflationary pressures) in markets we currently serve may negatively impact growth opportunities and margins.
- Our organization may not be sufficiently prepared to manage cyber threats that have the potential to disrupt core operations and/or damage our brand.
- Anticipated increases in labor costs may affect our opportunity to meet profitability targets.
Again, each of these risks is also among the top long-term concerns for CFOs, as well, as they consider issues that will have the most significant impact on their organizations over the next decade. Given that these risks also topped CFOs’ priority lists in another global survey conducted last year, it’s fair to now refer to these hazards as “forever risks.” They have captured the attention and concern of CFOs and other C-level executives, and they aren’t going away any time soon.
The economy is top of mind for good reason. Interrelated market forces, including deglobalization, tariffs and trade barriers, geopolitical tensions highlighted by U.S.-China relations, as well as various regional conflicts such as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, are contributing to economic uncertainty. Other factors include changes in fiscal and central bank policies in major economies, shifting demographics, immigration policies, and the related impact of all these factors on the supply of labor, interest rates, inflation rates, global supply chains and consumer spending. Clear and measurable economic growth is essential to alleviate these concerns. For the CFO, the action item here is to prioritize cost optimization activities that leverage technologies, including AI, to improve operating results via a carefully orchestrated blend of targeted cost reductions and revenue enhancements.
Cyber threats represent the second-ranked near-term risk for CFOs, as well as for board members and C-suite leaders. The emergence of AI has improved cybersecurity by enabling faster and more focused threat detection, automated incident response and analyses of network traffic to identify threats. However, cybercriminals also leverage AI to inflict sophisticated, large-scale attacks as well as highly deceptive phishing schemes. CFOs in public companies are especially focused on cybersecurity due to cyber disclosure requirements in the United States and other countries. Cyber threats also correlate with escalated geopolitical risks. And cyber threats, once realized in the form of cyber incidents, can be extremely expensive.
CFOs must stay vigilant in response to how cyber threats affect other finance activities and priorities, including financial reporting, regulatory compliance, FP&A, risk management, third-party risk management and business performance. They must partner with business leaders in the enterprise to ensure risk management and mitigation efforts are funded and prioritized appropriately.
While increasing labor costs mark CFOs’ third highest-ranked risk, three other talent-related risks also are of significant concern for finance leaders: the ability to attract, develop and retain top talent, manage shifts in labor expectations, and address succession challenges; talent and labor availability; and resistance to change restricting the organization from adjusting business models and core operations. I am certain that most finance leaders are intimately familiar with talent pipeline risks as the number of students taking CPA exams—traditionally, a key indicator of the largest finance talent pipeline—continues to plummet. The adoption of AI and other emerging technologies requiring new skills in short supply figures as a top strategic concern for CFOs as they look out long-term.
These developments require CFOs to formulate comprehensive talent management plans for the finance organization, ideally in partnership with the CHRO. Further, finance leaders must have a strong understanding of the skills and capabilities the organization will require to execute its business strategy and achieve near- and long-term growth objectives.
Other critical concerns: AI, regulatory volatility and technical debt
AI- and talent-related risks are clearly intertwined given that the organization’s ability to leverage emerging technologies to create new innovations (and businesses) while staving off disruptive competitors depends in great part on access to AI skills. A similar dynamic pervades across risk categories and finance focal points. The forever risk of uncertain economic conditions leaks into FP&A activities. Regulatory volatility is walloping planning and forecasting activities with near-daily bursts of uncertainty. The rapid pace of AI breakthroughs is ratcheting up pressure on CEOs and CFOs to advance beyond efficiency-focused pilot programs to derive measurable value from new investments in generative and agentic AI. This interrelatedness is important to keep in mind when considering other risk concerns for CFOs, as indicated in our survey:
- AI strategies confront finite resources. AI is a major investment and governance priority for CFOs, who are well aware that there are finite resources and funds to allocate to these investments as well as a need to assess the return on those investments critically. This leads to difficult tradeoffs between back-office transformation and customer-facing innovations.
- Regulatory-driven uncertainty is spiking. The implications of U.S. tariff announcements, regulatory agency restructuring and other government actions are generating ripple effects throughout most FP&A functions while impacting other top CFO risk concerns, including talent attraction and retention, labor costs, third-party risk management, and uncertainty surrounding core supply chain ecosystems.
- More technology modernization is needed. Despite significant investments in technology modernization in recent years, many efforts to reduce technical debt have not gone far enough. As companies continue to prioritize getting into the advanced automation game, CFOs need to assess ways for the organization to achieve greater progress with technology modernization efforts that deliver value-added outcomes with acceptable risk.
- CFOs are focused on overcoming resistance to change. This concern reflects the all-in nature of CFOs’ commitment to addressing workforce, talent and skills risks. Most finance leaders have firsthand exposure to this risk given that the ERP cloud migrations that underpin many digital transformation efforts can replace up to half of legacy finance processes while requiring major upskilling or reskilling.
Finally, it’s worth noting that CFOs’ 10-year risk outlook is decidedly strategic in nature. In addition to economic conditions, the availability of AI skills and ongoing regulatory uncertainty, finance leaders also identify customer loyalty and retention as a key long-term risk. This emphasis shows that CFOs understand how the bundling of digital products and services, along with omnichannel capabilities (in both B2B and B2C companies), will challenge current customer loyalty and retention levels while posing increasingly strategic risks to organizations over the coming decade.
The next two to three years will likely see ongoing and rapid shifts in business conditions, with similar levels of volatility expected over the long term. CFOs will need to stay on top of these challenges as they lead their organizations through further transformation.
This article originally appeared on Forbes CFO Network.
