Priorities & Tasks
Current Priorities Within Treasury
Sixty-three percent of treasury practitioners report that cash management and forecasting is currently one of the top 5 priorities at their organizations.
Cash management and forecasting
Other priorities rounding out the top 5 include:
Liquidity and cash planning including cash repatriation (cited by 48% of respondents)
Payments, treasury and related technologies
Usage of AI/automation to streamline and integrate in processes
Implementing technology/analytics, emerging technologies to improve efficiency, accuracy and compliance of processes
When segmenting organizations by annual revenue, usage of AI/ automation to streamline and integrate processes is a greater priority for those with annual revenue of at least $1 billion (33%, vs. 24% for organizations with annual revenue less than $1 billion). Implementing technology/analytics, emerging technologies to improve efficiency, accuracy and compliance of processes is also more important to larger organizations with annual revenue of at least $1 billion than to those organizations with annual revenue less than $1 billion (35% vs. 20%).
Challenging Tasks
When this survey was conducted in May 2026, treasury practitioners were managing cash, investments, risk and other responsibilities amid significant uncertainty. The escalating Middle East conflict, rising energy prices, tariff uncertainty and anticipated refunds from tariffs (per the recent Supreme Court decision) added to these challenges. At the same time, AI was becoming more accessible, prompting treasury teams to explore opportunities to automate processes and improve efficiency while seeking guidance on how to use AI effectively.
As in 2024, cash or liquidity forecasting remains the most challenging task for treasury practitioners, cited by 49% of respondents. Although it was also the top challenge in 2024, it was cited by a larger share of respondents that year (62%).
The decline may reflect the addition of three new challenge areas in 2026:
AI’s opportunity and risks for treasury (cited by 38% of respondents)
Forecast models
Using AI to automate manual processes (by revenue segment, AI-related challenges)
By revenue segment, AI-related challenges – both AI’s opportunities and risks for treasury and the use of AI to automate manual processes – are cited by a greater share of respondents from organizations with annual revenue of at least $1 billion than by those from organizations with revenue less than $1 billion.