Why it matters
Finland’s per-student tertiary education spending has declined by 14%, while the OECD average increased by 9%.
A significant gap exists between AI adoption (38% of enterprises) and comprehensive digital training (only 22% of businesses).
Foreign graduates are placed in expert roles at a lower rate (63%) compared to experienced workers (77%), indicating inefficient talent placement.
70.6% Finnish CFOs invest <1% revenue in AI skilling, and rank skill shortage only as a 5th priority issue. CFOs need to find the right balance of investment in technology (AI) and people (AI related skill training).
The more AI automates entry-level accountingwork (invoice processing, GL reconciliation,debit/credit validation), the less junior stafflearn why these controls exist or how to validateAI outputs. CFOs are Essentially tradingoperational efficiency for control visibility.
What it means to me as a CFO
As CFO, I face a critical dilemma:
Constrained national education investment clashes with the urgent need for AI upskilling. We risk a low ROI on both talent acquisition and technology investment as I need further training investments to compensate government decline spending in education.
The productivity gap is stark—only 16% of employees use AI daily despite 38% enterprise adoption. This isn’t just a cost; it’s a talent cost optimization opportunity waiting to be seized.
As hiring and economy are softening, I may need to consider my workforce’s capability to be productive and efficient using data, analytics and AI tools.
Further, without entry-level practitioners and AI taking basic tasks, there’s no internal expertise to audit AI-generated accounting entries, detect anomalies, or challenge incorrect outputs. Centralized shared services centers (SSCs) rely on tiered expertise, juniors handle routine work, seniors validate and escalate. By removing the junior layer, the entire governance model breaks.
Potential areas to act on
Establish a ‘Skills ROI’ framework to justify targeted onboarding and upskilling investments.
Create a ‘Learning Infrastructure Fund’ by allocating 2-3% of payroll to strategic training.
Pilot a ‘Potential-Based Hiring’ cost analysis to quantify the value of investing in high-potential talent.
Negotiate public-private training partnerships to share costs and reduce organizational burden.
Instead of eliminating entry-level roles, consider repurposing them as “AI Validators” and “Control Monitors.” For example, consider creating a new job category such as “Accounting Control Analyst” at the entry level, whose primary responsibilities would include spot-checking AI-generated entries, validating high-risk transactions (such as largesums, general ledger codes, and intercompany transactions), and documenting and escalating any anomalies. Additionally, rethink the Shared ServicesModel and its tier structure by incorporating these repurposed roles: position analysts-validators and controllers at tier 1, process specialists at tier 2, and control experts at tier 3.