Coupa releases new research that highlights a significant boost in optimism among financial leaders for 2025. The global survey reveals 74% of U.S. financial leaders not only expect profit margins to increase this year, but 57% project profit gains of higher than 10%. In fact, the majority of financial leaders (74%) believe that remaining status quo year-over-year is a win in itself – especially in today’s challenging economic climate.
One main reason for this outlook: technology. More than half of U.S. financial leaders (58%) said strategic investments in technology will be the leading driver of margin growth in 2025. With the ongoing AI boom, organizations see firsthand the productivity and efficiency gains of implementing these tools and platforms. AI tools empower the modern workforce to spend less time on tedious administrative tasks and focus their efforts on value-driven work that ultimately fuels business, and margin growth.
Key Takeaways:
- Globally, optimism around profit margin growth remains high. All four regions surveyed – U.S., UK, France, Germany – reported 74% or more of financial leaders expect profit margins to increase in 2025, some expecting growth over 10-15%.
- In addition to technology investments fueling margin growth, 57% of U.S. financial leaders said expanding into higher growth regions will contribute to profit increases. Respondents selected these two factors as the main drivers of profit increases, with other factors - such as lowering costs, raising prices or divesting less profitable business areas - not being as impactful in 2025.
- Operational disruptions (57%) and supply chain complexities (43%) are the top factors plaguing the majority of respondents when it comes to squeezing the margins. Declining consumer demand, competitive pressures and limited technology and infrastructure investment pose additional challenges to financial leaders, though these areas rank as a distant third.
