Net-new money is the most common source of AI budget, at 41 percent of finance-room respondents in Open Future Forum's August 2026 data (base 115). But the headline is uncertainty: 34 percent report no clear AI budget yet, up from 23 percent in early July, and reallocation from other software fell by nearly half, from 26 percent to 14 percent.
The easy funding move, cutting a software line item to pay for AI, is running out. What remains is net-new spend, headcount-linked money (20 percent of finance respondents, 33 percent of CEO respondents), and a growing share of companies deploying AI ahead of any budget line at all. Deployment has not waited: 71 percent of the largest finance room already runs Claude or another AI tool.
Full data: CFO AI Leverage Report, August 2026.
CFOs work these questions at the CFO Executive Forum, Open Future Forum's invitation-only peer group for senior finance leaders.