March 25, 2026 — Corporate treasury departments have embarked on a new phase of modernization efforts that aims to transform the way they manage cash flows and liquidity, fight fraud and execute other key finance and treasury functions—thanks to opportunities artificial intelligence has unlocked, but not thanks to AI exclusively.

“Companies around the world have kicked off fresh new efforts to make treasury departments more efficient and to increase their value as sources of data and insights that can be used to inform strategic decisions,” says Dr. Tobias Miarka, Crisil Coalition Greenwich Global Head of Corporate Banking.

AI across the board
AI is central to corporate treasury innovation plans and investment budgets. A new study from Crisil Coalition Greenwich reports that after a period of pilot programs and experimentation, sizable shares of global companies plan to deploy AI solutions in their treasury departments in the coming year.

Almost half of treasury departments at large corporates expect to be using AI for cash-flow forecasting within the next 12 months, and one-third expect to be using AI for fraud prevention. In addition to these applications, companies report plans to implement AI in account reconciliation, liquidity planning, FX, and other areas. In all these functions, a large majority of companies say they have long-term plans to employ AI.

AI is not the only tool companies are using to overhaul the treasury function. Approximately 45% of companies are using or actively evaluating the use of virtual cards, and nearly a third are using or evaluating embedded finance solutions. Looking a bit farther ahead, roughly 70% of companies expect to consider real-time and alternative payment methods at some point. Approximately 45% of companies plan to take a close look at digital wallets, and about a third expect to consider adopting tokenization (including stablecoins) and blockchain/DLT-based settlement solutions.

Integrating systems, unleashing technology 
Despite the enthusiasm for innovative solutions, even some of the largest companies still have real work to do on internal systems before they can integrate AI and other new tools at scale into corporate finance and treasury operations. About 40% of corporate treasury departments are run on multiple enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with limited integration, and roughly 1 in 5 are still run on spreadsheets and manual processes.

“Systems fragmentation makes it difficult if not impossible for companies to assemble the normalized, timely and reliable data they need to run AI solutions at scale and to broadly implement other new technologies across treasury operations,” says Dr. Tobias Miarka.

Companies recognize this challenge and are moving to address it. When companies are asked to name their top priorities for their treasury departments absent budget and other constraints, the practical goal of improving cash-flow forecasts tops the list. However, second and third priorities on that list are automating treasury operations to reduce manual work and reliance on spreadsheets, and integrating EMS, TMS and other core systems. Also ranking highly is improving the quality and readability of the data needed to unleash the power of AI and other innovative technologies.

In Q1 2026, Crisil Coalition Greenwich surveyed 142 large corporates globally about technology used in their treasury departments. Participants were asked about current systems configuration, the use of specific tools, investment and strategic priorities, and employment and interest in emerging innovative solutions.