Finance leaders are increasingly turning to agentic artificial intelligence (AI) — autonomous AI agents that can execute workflows, not just generate insights — to achieve measurable return on investment (ROI) and more direct business value. According to recent reports, agentic AI systems have delivered average ROI rates of around 80 % in finance workflows such as accounts payable automation, compared with lower returns from earlier AI applications that primarily produced insights requiring human follow-up.
Unlike generative AI that summarises data or drafts suggestions, agentic AI is designed to act on structured processes end-to-end within defined rules and approval thresholds. This autonomy allows agents to take structured tasks — like invoice capture, data entry, duplicate detection, fraud identification, and payment scheduling — and execute them directly without constant human intervention. In high-volume, rules-based environments such as accounts payable, these agents can streamline workflows, free up staff time, and convert automation into tangible financial benefits.
Finance organisations seeking the strongest ROI are also focused on pragmatic deployment choices. Data from industry research shows that combining agentic AI with good governance practices — including clear oversight, controlled autonomy, and alignment with business objectives — helps teams scale the technology safely and effectively. Leaders who embed agents across core finance functions tend to achieve higher returns than those using AI only for isolated experiments, underscoring the need to move beyond pilots to full workflow integration.
While adoption still requires careful planning — including managing data quality, building governance, and balancing autonomy with human oversight — agentic AI is increasingly seen as a strategic lever for finance teams aiming to translate AI investments into real bottom-line impact. This shift reflects broader enterprise trends in which CFOs and CIOs are moving from exploratory AI experimentation to enterprise-wide deployments that deliver measurable efficiency gains, cost savings, and operational improvements.
