CFOs Face AI Returns Gap as 91% of Project-Based Firms Label Technology Critical for Success

Project-based firms are navigating a landscape where economic volatility is no longer a temporary hurdle but a permanent operating condition. For fintech and finance professionals, the shift toward aggressive cost control and the integration of AI into financial workflows signals a critical evolution in how architecture, engineering, and consulting firms protect their margins.

What was announced

Deltek has released its 7th Annual Clarity Study, titled The CFO's Agenda, which reveals a significant disconnect between optimism and operational infrastructure within the professional services sector. Despite persistent economic uncertainty, 78% of architecture, engineering, and consulting firms expect their profits to rise by 2026. Notably, 22% of these organizations are forecasting profit growth of 10% or more.

The research highlights a strategic pivot in how these firms generate value. Cost control has now surpassed revenue growth as the primary driver for profitability. Specifically, 34% of firms identified stricter controls over purchases and approvals as their most effective lever for improving the bottom line, a notable increase from 26% in 2024. However, the study also exposes a structural weakness: while 86% of firms claim to track operating profit effectively, only 22% possess a fully integrated, end-to-end project management system. This gap suggests that many finance leaders are relying on manually compiled or incomplete KPI data to make high-stakes commercial decisions.

Technology and security have also moved to the forefront of the financial remit. While 91% of firms view artificial intelligence as critical to success, over half have yet to realize tangible productivity gains or cost savings. Furthermore, cybersecurity has emerged as a direct financial threat, with 66% of firms reporting a cyber attack within the last three years, and 45% of those victims suffering direct financial losses.

"The role of the CFO has fundamentally changed. Today’s finance leaders aren’t simply reporting on performance, they’re shaping it. The highest-performing firms in our study share common characteristics. They’re all connecting financial data to project data, embedding AI to deliver measurable returns, treating cyber risk as a financial exposure, and building KPI discipline that enables early intervention rather than late reporting. They understand that it’s not a case of having the most resources or the biggest teams, but about moving fast and demonstrating control."

Heather Larkin, CFO at Deltek.

The companies involved

Deltek is a global provider of software and information solutions for project-based businesses. The company positions itself as an intelligent platform designed to help organizations automate and optimize the project lifecycle, from initial pursuit through to delivery and final accounting. By focusing specifically on industries such as architecture, engineering, and consulting, Deltek occupies a specialized niche in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and project portfolio management (PPM) markets.

The firm’s annual Clarity Study has become a benchmark for the professional services industry, providing longitudinal data on how these businesses manage their finances, human capital, and technology investments. Under the financial leadership of CFO Heather Larkin, the company has increasingly focused on how the finance function can drive business results through better data integration and the governance of emerging technologies like AI. Deltek’s market presence is defined by its ability to bridge the gap between granular project-level data and high-level corporate financial reporting, a capability that the recent study suggests is currently lacking in the majority of the sector.

What this means

The industry is witnessing a "maturity trap" where firms have the desire to innovate but lack the data plumbing to do so effectively. The fact that nearly 80% of firms expect profit growth while only 22% have integrated systems suggests a dangerous reliance on optimism over infrastructure. This puts immense pressure on CFOs to move beyond traditional accounting and become architects of digital transformation. The shift toward cost control as a primary profit lever also indicates that the era of "growth at all costs" is over; the market now rewards operational efficiency and disciplined spend management. For the broader fintech sector, this creates a massive opening for tools that can automate purchase approvals and provide real-time, integrated visibility into project margins, as manual processes are clearly failing to keep pace with economic volatility.