• Deloitte’s latest report, The Audit Committee: A North Star for CFOs Navigating Uncharted Waters found that 90% of audit committee members say they expect the CFO to act as a bridge between management and the board.
• 90% of audit committee members say visibility into finance systems and processes is ‘very or extremely important’, reflecting a shift from outcome‑based assurance to mechanism‑based assurance.
• Nearly two‑thirds of audit committee members (62%) say they want regular to continuous updates, yet only 36% of CFOs say they currently provide information at that cadence.
• Amid AI adoption, economic uncertainty, and Middle East geopolitical instability, a CFO pulse survey showed CFOs and audit committees converging around a shared resilience agenda, albeit from different vantage points.
• Trust between CFOs and audit committees remains strong, with both sides rating it at 4 out of 5.
The role of chief financial officers (CFOs) in sharing information with boards, management and audit committees is more critical than ever, amid an increasingly volatile business environment, according to leaders at Deloitte Thailand’s “CFO Forum: the Audit Committee: A North Star for CFOs Navigating Uncharted Waters”.
During the event, leaders shared perspectives on the increasing demand for timely, high-quality information to support boards and management amid growing uncertainty. As Thailand continues to attract foreign investment and modernize capital markets, governance quality becomes a differentiator. They also examined how AI is reshaping the finance function while introducing new governance considerations.
Mr. Wonlop Vilaivaravit, CFO Program Leader and Partner, Deloitte Thailand said that for Thai businesses, the past year’s volatility has shown that resilience is less about having more data, and more about delivering the right insights to the boardroom early enough to act decisively.
“The most resilient organisations treat governance as a shared responsibility, with CFO as the key conduit between management and the audit committee. In volatile conditions, calibration is critical knowing what and when to surface, and how to frame it. Encouragingly, Thai CFOs are not retreating in the face of uncertainty. They are leaning into what they can control: strengthening performance, protecting liquidity and supply chains, and building the capabilities, including in AI, to invest with confidence when the moment comes,” said Mr. Wonlop.
According to the latest Deloitte Southeast Asia CFO report, The Audit Committee: A North Star for CFOs navigating uncharted waters, 90% of audit committee members expect chief financial officers (CFOs) to act as a bridge between management and the board, and that CFOs play an important role in calibrating the issues to surface to audit committee members.
Drawing on a survey of 21 audit committee members and 61 CFOs conducted between October and December 2025 across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as in-depth interviews, the report further stated that under steady-state conditions, most audit committee members feel broadly well served, with 85% saying they receive the right information at the right time. However, that confidence weakens as volatility rises and decision windows compress.
Additionally, 90% also said that visibility into finance systems and processes is very or extremely important, signalling a move from outcome-based assurance towards a deeper, mechanism-based understanding of how financial information is produced. Among survey respondents, 90% of audit committee members rated regulatory compliance communication as very or extremely important, followed by technology, AI and cyber risk (67%), and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters (48%).
The research also shows that governance challenges today are less often caused by a lack of information, and more often by information arriving too late or being framed too narrowly for effective judgement, as 62% of audit committee members say they want regular to continuous updates, yet only 36% of CFOs say they provide information at that cadence. The findings suggest that the priority is not more reporting, but earlier orientation on what is changing, what remains uncertain and which judgement calls may narrow options if left too late.
Calibration is the resilience challenge
Leaders at the Deloitte CFO event reflected on the balance between avoiding superfluous reporting and ensuring potential issues are escalated swiftly, during a time where companies are striving for resilience.
Mrs. Cherdchome Therdsteerasukdi, Chief Finance and Accounting Officer, Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, added that in a volatile industry, the finance function’s value lies in giving the board early orientation, not just fuller reporting.
“In aviation, fuel prices, currency movements, and geopolitical shifts can change our outlook overnight. Resilience has meant building discipline through scenario planning, tight liquidity and working-capital control, and an a ‘no surprises’ dialogue with our audit committee. Thus, issues surface while there is still room to act. The finance function’s role is not to present a tidy picture after the fact, but to give the board a clear, early view of what is changing and what it means,” said Mrs. Cherdchome.
The Deloitte research reinforced that the core challenge in escalating information is calibration, as audit committees and CFOs often assign different priority levels to various sets of information.
Liquidity headroom, working-capital controls, and capex and portfolio were each cited by 50% of respondents from Audit Committee as key areas requiring assurance. By contrast, CFOs pointed to a broader set of exposures as top priorities (36% each) including supply and logistics continuity, hedging and market exposure, scenario planning, and counterparty and credit risk.
The Audit Committee report also challenged the notion that CFOs are overwhelmed in communicating with the board. They rated the challenge of translating strategic discussions into board-ready insights at 2.4 out of 5, with 1 being ‘not challenging at all’ and 5 being ‘extremely challenging’.
Even amid these pressures, the foundation is solid. Trust between CFOs and audit committees remains strong, with both sides rating it 4 out of 5 – with 5 being ‘very high trust’. This trust enables difficult issues to surface early before options narrow and organisational resilience is at risk.
However, CFOs rated the quality of interactions slightly lower (3.7 out of 5) than audit committee members (4 out of 5), reflecting the growing demands placed on CFOs as translators, calibrators and stewards of assurance under pressure. In this environment, the report argues, the most effective governance relationships will be those that allow difficult issues to surface early, before choices become constrained and resilience is put at risk.
From efficiency to assurance: AI’s next governance challenge
A subsequent Asia Pacific CFO Pulse Survey, conducted between March and April 2026, explores the sentiments and key issues facing CFOs across the region from surveying 462 CFOs across Australia; China Mainland; Hong Kong SAR; Taiwan (China); Japan; New Zealand; Republic of Korea; South Asia (India and Sri Lanka); and Southeast Asia (Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam).
It found that recent disruption from AI adoption, economic uncertainty, and Middle East’s geopolitical instability has further sharpened the need for earlier visibility, stronger resilience planning and clearer governance trade-offs. Yet finance leaders remain resilient and optimistic. Despite uneven AI adoption, net optimism in CFOs’ own business prospects is +41%, some 68 percentage points higher than their confidence in the global economy, with over 80% expecting profits to rise or hold steady over the next 12 months.
This comes even as 77% of CFOs expected negative impacts to their companies from the Middle East conflict, with only 8% expecting benefits. In response, CFOs are reinforcing supply chains and financial stability through tactical short-term measures, with 60% tightening cost controls and 52% increasing focus on liquidity and cash management.
The Asia Pacific CFO Pulse survey found widespread, yet uneven AI adoption: 54% of CFOs report pockets of AI use in their businesses against 13% with extensive deployment, while 52% said AI is already delivering value. The biggest constraints are talent and skills gaps (56%) and data quality (55%), with almost three-quarters of CFOs are investing in workforce upskilling.
At the CFO event, discussion also turned to AI, with some participants questioning whether AI technologies employed by finance functions strengthen assurance or simply improve efficiency.
Dr. Kulpatra Sirodom, Honorary Chair, Thai Institute of Directors said “Boards are increasingly being asked to oversight technologies they did not grow up with, creating a governance challenge. AI is changing how information reaches the boardroom, in terms of speed, volume, and the way it is synthesised, and directors need to be confident that what they are seeing is accurate and useful. At the Thai Institute of Directors, we see this as one of the most crucial areas of board development: understanding how AI can impact the information quality that boards rely on to make sound decisions.”
