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LONDON — As the 2026 fiscal year intensifies, a new study from S&P 500 payments leader Corpay reveals a troubling disconnect: while nearly every CFO (99%) intends to automate their operations, legacy infrastructure and "fragmented reality" are stalling progress.
The report, titled The Automation Deficit, highlights that despite high ambitions for 2026, UK finance leaders are trapped in a cycle of manual workflows. Nearly half (47%) of surveyed CFOs identified integration hurdles as their primary roadblock, followed closely by internal resistance to change and data security anxieties.
“There is a visible friction between what CFOs want to achieve and the tools they actually have at their disposal,” says Piero Macari, VP of Products at Corpay. “This 'automation deficit' isn't just an inconvenience—it’s a barrier to real-time visibility that creates risk during critical year-end forecasting.”
To combat these siloes, the report advocates for a "connected automation layer." By unifying fragmented tasks like expense management and cross-border payments into a single ERP-integrated flow—such as the Corpay Complete platform—finance teams can pivot from repetitive data entry to high-level strategic growth.
About Corpay
Corpay (NYSE: CPAY) is a global S&P500 corporate payments company that helps businesses and consumers pay expenses in a simple, controlled manner. Corpay’s suite of modern payment solutions help its customers better manage vehicle-related expenses (like fuelling and parking), travel expenses (like hotel bookings) and payables (like paying vendors).
To learn more visit www.corpay.com
