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With 67% of customer paying slower than six months ago, rising costs and tariff pressures are making fast, efficient cash generation the defining priority.
Tariffs. Inflation that won’t quit. Customers stretching every payment cycle. Federal spending cuts that are pulling the rug out from under entire industries. Oh, and AI – the technology everyone’s betting big on, even as more than half of finance leaders quietly wonder whether the whole thing is a bubble.
It’s a lot. And if you’re a CFO, accounts receivable leader, or finance executive trying to chart a course through all of it, you’re not alone.
Billtrust surveyed 550 finance professionals to find out how the people steering the money are actually responding. The sample spans strategic decision-makers who set financial direction, senior leaders who shape departmental strategy, and mid-level contributors who influence day-to-day financial decisions. They work across organizations of every size, from sub-$100 million companies to enterprises clearing over a billion in annual revenue.
What they told us is worth paying attention to. Finance leaders are pulling back hard on spending and growth, and at the same time, pouring money into AI and automation like the future depends on it. That push and pull is the story of 2026.
67%
say their customers are paying slower than six months ago. One in five says it’s significantly slower.
77%
view a U.S. recession as likely, possible, or already underway in their sector.
43%
canceled or delayed a major growth initiative due to economic or policy uncertainty; another 28% recommended against a project but were overridden.
77%
report moderate to significant supply cost increases from tariffs since early 2025, and 85% have deployed at least one mitigation strategy in response.
65%
are dedicating 10% or more of their 2026 budgets to AI and automation, yet 59% are simultaneously worried the investment wave may represent a bubble.
Finance leaders stopped waiting for things to get easier. The rest of this report shows what that looks like in practice.
Here’s the number that should be on every CFO’s whiteboard: 67% of finance professionals say their customers are paying slower than they were six months ago. One in five say it’s significantly slower.
Your revenue might look fine on paper, but the cash behind it is arriving later, stretching working capital, tightening liquidity, and pressuring every downstream process from collections to credit allocation. The money’s technically coming, but the timing mismatch creates real pain.
Nearly half (48%) have shifted to more conservative cash management: building reserves and tightening payment terms. Only 20% are taking an aggressive posture, deploying capital into growth, M&A, or AI investments. While fewer executives report newly shifting to conservative management compared to 2025 (63%), the underlying behaviors have only deepened. This year, actions like reserve-building, tighter payment terms, and reduced discretionary spending appear more entrenched, suggesting the defensive mindset has become the norm rather than a temporary response.
The growth freeze goes even deeper. When we asked whether leaders had canceled, delayed, or scaled back major growth initiatives in the past 12 months, 43% canceled or delayed a major initiative due to economic or policy uncertainty. Another 28% formally recommended against a growth initiative but were overridden. Only 29% moved forward on all planned initiatives without hesitation.
Roughly 7-in-10 finance leaders either hit the brakes on growth or tried to.
And it makes sense when you look at where heads are at: 77% view a U.S. recession as likely, possible, or already underway in their sector. That’s a significant shift in tone from 2025, when 82% saw recession as likely or possible within 6–12 months. What’s different is that fewer leaders are treating recession as something coming, and more are treating it as something already happening in their sector.
If 2025 was the year tariffs grabbed headlines, 2026 is the year they settled into the cost structure. The shock has faded, but the costs haven’t.
Seventy-seven percent of finance professionals report moderate to significant supply cost increases from tariff changes since early 2025. Nearly one in five (19%) are dealing with increases exceeding 15%, a threshold that doesn’t leave much room for margin management. For context, in the 2025 study, 83% of decision-makers reported moderate to significant cost increase, and nearly a quarter (23%) were absorbing increases above 15%.
Eighty-five percent have implemented at least one tariff mitigation strategy: 53% are passing costs to customers, 35% are nearshoring or reshoring, 30% are pre-buying inventory strategically, and 25% are diversifying suppliers. The smartest organizations aren’t relying on just one of these – they’re stacking multiple strategies because they know tariff volatility isn’t going away. In 2025, 65% of all finance professionals said they had implemented at least one mitigation strategy. The jump to 85% this year reflects how tariff management has shifted from a senior-leadership concern to an organization-wide reality.
On the planning side, 48% are building conservative estimates with cost buffers into their 2026–2027 financial plans, while 44% are running scenario planning based on different policy outcomes. Only 14% have no specific approach to forecasting tariff impacts, a number that should concern anyone in that camp.
Persistent inflation remains the single biggest strategic planning risk at 26%, followed closely by tariff volatility at 24%. In 2025, inflation was also the top concern, cited by 38% of decision-makers as the single greatest planning risk, with tariffs at 25%. The gap between the two has narrowed considerably, suggesting tariff volatility has become a sustained, structural worry.
When we broadened the question to multiple concerns heading into the second half of 2026, the picture sharpened: 55% cited persistent inflation above the Fed’s 2% target, 53% flagged rising borrowing costs, 48% pointed to tariff instability, and 47% named federal policy uncertainty.
The standout? AI-related risks cracked the top five at 41%, encompassing cybersecurity threats like deep-fake-enabled payment fraud, workforce disruption, and ROI uncertainty. Finance leaders are simultaneously investing in AI and worried about it. (You can read Billtrust’s deep dive into finance leaders’ AI misuse concerns here).
Sixty-five percent of finance leaders are dedicating 10% or more of their 2026 budgets to AI and automation, and 15% are committing over a quarter of their total budget. In 2025, 67% were already dedicating 10% or more, so the investment level has held essentially flat at the top line. What’s changed is the nature of the commitment: last year, leaders were betting on AI’s potential. This year, they’re defending existing deployments and doubling down on what’s working.
And yet 59% are concerned this investment wave may represent a bubble that won’t deliver sustained long-term value. Nearly one-in-five (17%) describe themselves as “very concerned” about overinvestment.
This appears to be a calculated hedge. Leaders can’t afford the risk of being left behind if AI delivers on its promise, even as they brace for the possibility that some of their investment won’t produce returns. Although that’s a step forward from 2025, when 83% of decision-makers said AI had positively influenced their approach to managing financial risk, positive influence and measurable business outcomes are two different things. The 2026 data suggest finance teams are getting sharper about connecting AI investment to concrete results.
The adoption numbers show why this isn’t just hype: 45% are using AI-powered forecasting and scenario planning, 40% are leveraging AI-driven AR automation, and 36% have deployed automated risk analysis and fraud detection. Only 16% aren’t using AI in financial decision-making at all.
On the investment roadmap, fraud detection and deepfake defense rocketed to the #1 planned AI priority at 47%, a category that barely existed a year ago. AR automation follows at 42%, AP automation at 38%, and agentic AI for autonomous payment workflows sits at 18% (it’s still early, but the organizations investing here are betting on AI that doesn’t just assist the team but runs the process).
Is it delivering? For many organizations, yes. 56% report improved forecasting accuracy and real-time risk visibility, 42% have reduced fraud losses, and 18% have directly reduced DSO or accelerated cash application. Only 21% report no measurable impact, meaning 79% are seeing tangible returns from a technology many organizations have only deployed at scale for a year or two.
Teams are getting leaner, and AI is the reason it’s possible. Thirty-four percent of organizations have reduced headcount, and 23% have implemented a hiring freeze. Among the 52% maintaining current levels, existing teams are absorbing more work.
Fifty-nine percent are using AI at a moderate to significant level to offset staffing constraints. The largest segment (49%) describes AI as augmenting teams without replacing roles. Another 11% say AI is significantly reducing the need for new hires.
When budgets are tight and customers are paying slower, the organizations that can do more with their current teams without burning them out have a real competitive advantage.
Seventy-eight percent of finance teams now reassess forecasts and adjust strategy at least quarterly, with 26% reviewing monthly or more frequently. A small but notable 3% are using AI for continuous, always-on scenario planning. The quarterly number is similar to 2025, when 85% were reviewing at least that often. What changed is the mix. In 2025, 38% were reviewing monthly or more, which is down to 26% now. The most likely explanation is that teams have a better read on their exposure than they did a year ago.
Eighty-six percent have specific preparations in place for what’s ahead, deploying a mix of defensive and offensive strategies: 44% are strengthening cash reserves, 34% are cutting expenditures, 32% are diversifying revenue streams, 30% are accelerating AI adoption, and 28% are tightening credit policies or accelerating collections.
That last number ties everything together. When customers are paying slower, tariffs are eating margins, and recession risk looms, the ability to collect cash faster and extend credit more intelligently becomes a survival strategy.
Every data point in this survey tells the same story: finance leaders are managing several contradictions. Conserving cash while investing in AI. Cutting headcount while expecting more output. Bracing for a recession while trying not to fall behind competitors who are moving faster.
The most prepared organizations share a common playbook: they’re treating cash velocity as a strategic asset, building tariff resilience into the financial architecture rather than just the spreadsheet, investing in AI with eyes wide open and a clear focus on proven use cases, and planning in shorter cycles so they’re never caught flat-footed.
2026 isn’t the year to wait for clarity. The winners will be the leaders who build strategies that thrive in ambiguity, protecting cash on one side while positioning for growth on the other.
The choppy waters aren’t going away. The job now is keeping the ship afloat and moving forward.
