Finance leaders are entering 2026 with something unexpected: Confidence. Despite persistent geopolitical volatility, inflation pressure, and economic uncertainty, Kyriba's 2026 CFO Survey finds that CFOs are broadly optimistic; not because the risks have disappeared, but because they've built the operational readiness to manage them.
For companies with active R&D programs, the findings carry a clear signal that the CFOs best positioned for growth are investing proactively in the systems and capital sources that fund innovation without overextending their teams.
The OPR Index: Measuring CFO Confidence Under Pressure
To quantify CFO confidence, Kyriba developed the OPR Index, which is a data-driven measure built on three dimensions: Optimism, Preparedness, and Risk. The index runs on a 0–200 scale, with higher scores reflecting stronger confidence under pressure.
The global OPR score for 2026 sits at 93.28, which is a level Kyriba characterizes as "measured confidence." That score reflects a broadly positive business outlook, supported by solid operational readiness, but tempered by persistent external pressures. North American CFOs score among the highest globally, alongside the UK, Singapore, and Germany.
Three Trends Reshaping the CFO Role
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The AI Trust Gap
67% of CFOs now expect AI to deliver the biggest transformation to their role over the next five years — a 14-point surge in just six months. Yet 77% cite privacy and security as critical risks, creating a persistent gap between ambition and adoption. Top priorities for closing that gap include AI implementation (53%), data reliability (31%), and fraud prevention (27%).
The implication: finance teams are under pressure to do more with less and to automate intelligently — but they're not willing to move faster than their risk frameworks allow.
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Engineered Growth
CFOs are shifting toward "engineered growth," which is a strategy that builds innovation on a foundation of operational precision. But nearly 59% lack a complete, real-time view of cash and liquidity, creating a gap between strategic ambition and execution.
This matters for R&D-intensive companies. Growth goals set at the leadership level can stall when finance teams don't have full visibility into available capital — including non-dilutive sources like government R&D tax credits that don't show up until the claim is filed.
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Risk-Intelligent Performance
Nearly 61% of CFOs identify risk management and scenario planning as crucial skills, reflecting a broader shift toward proactive, data-driven decision-making rather than reactive risk avoidance.
Rather than pulling back on innovation spend, leading finance teams are building the systems to fund and defend it — including the documentation infrastructure needed to support audit-ready R&D claims.
What This Means for R&D-Investing Companies
The throughline across all three trends is the same: CFOs want to fund growth, but they need visibility, control, and defensibility to do it confidently.
R&D tax credits (including the federal Section 41 credit in the U.S. and SR&ED in Canada) are among the most powerful non-dilutive capital sources available to innovative companies. Yet many finance teams still treat them as an afterthought, filing manually or leaving qualifying activities unidentified until year-end.
In a tighter capital environment, that approach has a real cost. The Kyriba data suggests CFOs are becoming more sophisticated about proactive financial planning — and R&D tax credits should be part of that picture from the start of the fiscal year, not the end.
Building a More Proactive R&D Credit Strategy
At Boast, we work with 2,000+ companies across North America to help finance teams identify, claim, and defend R&D tax credits without overburdening their internal teams. Our platform automates data collection and qualification while our tax experts handle the complexity — so CFOs get maximum credit recovery with minimum time investment.
For U.S. companies, that includes the federal R&D tax credit under Section 41, state-level programs, and updated compliance requirements under the new Form 6765 Section G rules. For Canadian companies, that includes SR&ED — which saw meaningful enhancements in 2026, including a doubled expenditure limit and restored capital expenditure eligibility — as well as provincial programs like Ontario's OITC and Quebec's CDAE-IA.
The CFOs Kyriba surveyed are optimistic because they've invested in the right infrastructure. Companies that treat R&D credits as part of their capital strategy (not a year-end accounting exercise) are the ones recovering the most from programs that already exist to fund their work.
