Two-thirds of finance sector chiefs fear ‘DIY AI’ security risks

Posted to News on Thursday, February 12, 2026 Share:

FINANCE SECTOR leaders are increasingly worried about the security risks associated with building Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents from scratch, with 67% saying ‘DIY AI’ could increase risk. That’s according to a major new survey conducted by research house FT Longitude in partnership with invoice tech firm Basware.

Despite the security fears, six-in-ten (61%) finance leaders said they had already rolled out custom-developed AI agents “largely as an experiment” in order to appease demands from their boss. This is despite one-in-four of those leaders stating that they have no idea what an AI agent actually does.

The global study, entitled AI to RoI: Unlocking Value with AI Agents, surveyed 200 CFOs globally, also revealing that 43% of those CFOs feel AI would eventually cost them their job.

Commenting on the research, Jason Kurtz (CEO at Basware) has noted that businesses had “reached a tipping point” around AI experimentation and that the demand for tangible results was now a top priority.

Return on Investment

The report also finds that overall AI Return on Investment (RoI) rose from 35% to 67% in the last year. Survey data also highlights the fact that agentic AI – and companies using third party solutions already embedded with AI agents – outperformed all categories with an average RoI of 80%.

Four-in-ten leaders also said they’re facing “pressure” from their superiors to “do something with AI”.

Two-thirds (ie 66%) of respondents to the Basware survey suggest there’s more hype around agentic AI than any previous technology shift, yet three-quarters are still figuring out the best way in which it might be leveraged. The C-Suite appears to be losing patience.

72% of respondents to the Basware survey view Accounts Payable – often the most manual and data-heavy element of the finance function – as being the most obvious starting point for agentic AI.