2026 CFO Tech Budget Outlook

Discipline, Reallocation and the Next Phase of Enterprise Spend

As CFOs across Australia and New Zealand enter the 2026 planning cycle, technology investment is no longer framed as a growth narrative in its own right. Instead, it is being assessed as a mature category of capital allocation, subject to the same scrutiny as any other major investment decision.

After several years of accelerated digital spend, driven by cloud adoption, automation, regulatory change and post-pandemic operating shifts, many organisations are now reassessing where technology has delivered value, where it has not, and what needs to change as conditions remain uncertain.

In forming a view on the year ahead, I have compared what I am hearing directly from CFOs and technology executives with observations shared by firms working inside large enterprise programs. While perspectives differ by sector, the signals across the market are consistent.

Overall Spend: Stable Budgets, Sharper Choices

For most organisations, overall technology budgets in 2026 are expected to remain broadly in line with 2025, once contractual increases and inflation are taken into account. There is limited appetite for material expansion in total spend, particularly where prior investments have yet to deliver their full return.

Several factors are shaping this position:

• Ongoing margin pressure across multiple sectors
• Increased board scrutiny over value realisation
• Competing demands from regulatory, cyber and compliance programs

Rather than increasing total investment, CFOs are reallocating funding within the technology portfolio. Areas with clear operational, regulatory or risk-reduction benefits are being prioritised, while others are being reviewed, consolidated or deferred.

ERP: Continued Investment, Tighter Parameters

Enterprise Resource Planning systems remain one of the largest technology line items under CFO oversight. However, the nature of ERP spend is evolving.

Both CFOs and advisers working in this space are seeing fewer large, end-to-end ERP replacements unless driven by clear constraints such as unsupported platforms, regulatory change or major structural shifts.

Instead, investment is focused on:

• Simplifying complex ERP environments created through years of acquisition
• Selective cloud migration where cost, resilience or scalability benefits are demonstrable
• Improving data consistency to support reporting, planning and control

ERP programs are increasingly expected to operate within tighter scopes, phased delivery models and clearly defined benefit cases. CFOs are placing greater emphasis on execution discipline and benefits tracking than in previous transformation cycles.

AI: Narrower Use Cases, Higher Expectations

Artificial intelligence continues to attract attention, but funding decisions are becoming more selective.

Many organisations invested in AI pilots over the past two to three years with mixed outcomes. In some cases, initiatives delivered incremental productivity improvements; in others, they struggled to move beyond experimentation due to data quality issues, integration challenges or unclear ownership.

As a result, AI investment in 2026 is being concentrated on specific, operationally grounded use cases, particularly within finance and adjacent functions.

These include:

• Forecasting and scenario modelling
• Automation of transaction-heavy finance processes
• Risk, anomaly and fraud detection
• Working capital and cash-flow optimisation

Funding approvals are increasingly tied to explicit performance measures such as cycle-time reduction, accuracy improvements or cost savings. Broader AI initiatives without a clear operating model or benefit profile are receiving less support.

Cybersecurity: Sustained Priority

Cybersecurity remains one of the few technology categories where budget growth is still expected across most organisations.

Rising threat levels, expanding regulatory requirements and heightened board awareness have reinforced the view that cyber risk is an enterprise issue rather than a purely technical one. For CFOs, cybersecurity spend is evaluated primarily through a risk and resilience lens.

2026 budgets are prioritising:

• Identity and access management
• Threat detection and response capabilities
• Data protection and recovery
• Controls aligned with regulatory and insurance requirements

While cost discipline still applies, there is broad acceptance that underinvestment in this area carries disproportionate downside risk.

ESG Technology: Data Quality Over Presentation

ESG-related technology spend continues to evolve as regulatory and investor expectations increase.

Earlier ESG initiatives often focused on disclosure and reporting. In 2026, CFOs are placing greater emphasis on data integrity, ownership and internal controls, reflecting increased scrutiny of non-financial metrics.

Investment is directed toward systems that support:

• Reliable data capture across the organisation
• Clear data lineage and accountability
• Consistent reporting aligned with regulatory frameworks

The focus is less on presentation and more on ensuring ESG information can withstand external review.

Areas Under Review

Alongside targeted investment, CFOs are reassessing areas where technology spend has expanded without delivering proportional benefit.

Common areas under review include:

• Overlapping tools introduced during rapid digitisation
• Pilot initiatives that failed to scale into production
• Platforms lacking clear business ownership

The objective is simplification and better governance rather than wholesale cost reduction.

A Broader Structural Challenge

One theme emerging more clearly in recent discussions is capacity rather than intent.

As technology advances faster across ERP, AI, cyber and regulatory domains, many CFOs and CIOs acknowledge that it is increasingly difficult for internal teams to maintain deep expertise across every area while also running day-to-day operations.

This is reflected in what firms such as SMC report seeing across the market: organisations seeking more targeted, unconflicted advice to support decision-making on technology investment, particularly where the cost of getting it wrong is high and budgets are constrained.

This is less about outsourcing accountability and more about recognising that the pace and complexity of change now exceeds what most leadership teams can realistically cover alone.

Implications for the CFO Agenda

The 2026 technology budget cycle reflects a more mature phase of digital investment.

For CFOs, this means:

• Holding overall spend steady while reallocating within the portfolio
• Applying stricter approval criteria to new initiatives
• Expecting clearer delivery milestones and accountability

Technology remains central to how organisations operate, but it is increasingly managed like any other major capital investment, with a focus on return, risk and sustainability.

As this next phase unfolds, the CFO’s role in shaping technology priorities remains critical: ensuring capital is allocated where it delivers measurable value and protects the organisation over the long term.

About the Author

Ben Dodds is a senior finance leader with CFO and executive leadership experience, helping complex organisations accelerate growth, improve profitability, and deliver enterprise-wide transformation. In senior roles at Tabcorp, DXC Technology, and Hewlett Packard, Ben has shaped finance into a strategic business partner, driving commercial performance, optimising cost structures, and enabling better decision-making.

Ben is known for building leadership teams that deliver results, creating clarity in complexity, and working directly with executive teams to unlock sustainable performance. He shares his perspectives on financial leadership and transformation as a contributor to CFO Magazine A/NZ.

Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedIn.com/in/benrdodds