One in Five Australian Executives Say AI Errors Have Reached External Audiences or Boards: Workiva
Although 79 per cent of executives are at least somewhat confident in AI output without human review, only 14 per cent believe their data quality is sufficient for AI use
Workiva Inc. (NYSE: WK), a leading, audit-ready platform for trust, transparency, and accountability, today released Australian findings from its 2026 Midyear Executive Benchmark Survey.
Although 79 per cent of surveyed executives say they are at least somewhat confident in the accuracy of AI output without human review, one in five (21 per cent) say internal audits have detected AI errors that reached external audiences or board members. This data suggests there is a disconnect between what executives believe and what evidence shows. As AI reshapes the enterprise at unprecedented speed, a new risk is emerging: transformation could be outpacing the instincts of the leaders tasked with overseeing it.
"Bad data dressed up by good AI is still bad data; it’s just faster and harder to catch. Before leaders confidently hand more decisions to AI, they need to know where the numbers came from and be able to prove it when someone asks,” said Kristen Pimpini (KP), VP and General Manager APJ at Workiva. “Companies building on that foundation don't just reduce mistakes, they gain the confidence to push AI into more of the business, faster. They won’t be second-guessing what AI hands them and in the end, that confidence is the true advantage.”
Data Quality Threatens AI Accuracy
Executives largely agree that poor data quality is limiting their organisations’ use of AI, suggesting enterprise AI can only scale where there is confidence in, and control over, the underlying data.
Only 14 per cent of executives believe their data quality is sufficient for AI use
21 per cent say poor data quality has significantly blocked deployment in key workflows
65 per cent say poor data quality has at least moderately impacted the use of AI in financial and sustainability reporting
Over time, weak or unverifiable data may erode credibility with stakeholders, and organisations that fail to address poor data quality risk losing ground to more proactive peers.
As Australian organisations scale their AI deployments, leaders are becoming more vocal about the risks they see as most pressing.
43 per cent of local executives say they’re concerned with the risk of intellectual property leakage, sharing proprietary data through unauthorised AI tools
39 per cent say they’re concerned by the verification gap, employees failing to check AI-generated data before it is used externally or presented to the board.
AI audits reviewing how systems are developed, deployed, and governed can reveal accuracy, data lineage, and control gaps.
39 per cent of surveyed executives say their organisation’s most recent AI audit uncovered data lineage gaps or traceability issues
29 per cent say there are gaps in governance policies or controls
21 per cent say it uncovered hallucinations or errors that reached external audiences or the board
Meanwhile, only 38 per cent of Australian executives say their audit revealed validation of existing controls
“Finance teams should be spending more time supporting their businesses and its initiatives, and less time on the process of reporting and closing out the month and year end. Confidence in data, built by a clear trail of where it came from and who touched it, takes the guesswork out of reporting and limits human error from creeping in. That frees teams to focus their talents on the key business initiatives and value-added work, not ticking and tying a set of financial statements for the fifth time or manually shuffling data around,” said David Conley, Head of Reporting at Challenger.
Executives See Clear Results From Meaningful AI Adoption
Australian executives are beginning to report return on investment (ROI) from AI adoption and are using multiple metrics to measure that ROI.
61 per cent say they’re using revenue growth
53 per cent say they’re using time savings
48 per cent say they’re using automation rate, the percentage of tasks completed without human intervention
36 per cent say they’re using internal rate of return
23 per cent say they’re using revenue per employee
Among Australian finance, risk, and sustainability professionals, there has been a significant adoption of AI and executives have already seen how it is affecting the overall workloads of teams.
74 per cent say it has improved the quality of at least some of the work produced
46 per cent say it has removed or automated tasks their team previously handled
32 per cent say it has created more tasks and review requirements
88 per cent of executives say AI training is a top priority in the second half of the year
For financial reporting teams, and CFOs in particular, the tools that govern AI output are as critical as the AI itself. As agents become more autonomous, executives believe the need for specialised infrastructure will increase, citing multiple priorities1:
51 per cent say they will continue to need systems of record, such as general ledgers
50 per cent say they will need software that enables traceability and audit
59 per cent say they will need platforms to manage agents and automated workflows
The Workiva 2026 Midyear Executive Benchmark Survey polled 2,272 finance, risk, and sustainability professionals, including 847 C-level executives, from organisations across North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region, including Australia. Read the global report at www.workiva.com/benchmark-2026.
1 Respondents could select multiple answers. Percentages are not cumulative.
About Workiva
Workiva Inc. (NYSE: WK) powers trust, transparency, and accountability. Finance, accounting, sustainability, risk, and audit teams from more than 6,700 organizations, including over 85% of Fortune 1,000 companies, rely on Workiva for their mission-critical work. We transform how customers connect data, unify processes, and empower teams in a secure, audit-ready platform. Learn more at workiva.com.