Cut the Cost, Pay the Price? The Hidden Risk of Unproven AI Solutions

CFOs everywhere are getting the same memo: cut spend. The current need for budget cuts has led to a rise of alternative and sometimes DIY solutions – maybe leveraging a system like ChatGPT, a build-it‑yourself project, or a generative AI startup that “does it all.” On paper, the price tag looks smaller. In practice, the risk and real costs can be much larger.

When it comes to startups, one thing is widely known: many fail. Reported statistics vary widely—from a questionable 90% failure rate to a more reliable, yet still concerning, 50% failure rate within the first five years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The technology space accounts for over 25% of all startups—with fintech accounting for 7.1% alone—there’s a high risk of technology whiplash: investing time and money in a tool that’s here today, gone tomorrow.  

Far beyond the inconvenience of losing a tool you invested time and money in implementing is the impact flighty or unproven financial close tools can have on your business and reputation.

The real price of getting the close wrong

When it comes to the close, the “cheaper” path isn’t actually cheap if it pushes you closer to control failures or extended audits. Unfortunately, audit fees continue to climb to record highs. The average audit fee for SEC registrants was a record-high $3.26 million in 2024, a 9% increase from the previous year. This no doubt reflects the increased complexity it now takes for something like an ICFR (Internal Control Over Financial Reporting) audit to evaluate all the processes and procedures a company has in place that ensure accuracy and reliability of financial reporting. 

With expanding global organizations, it’s more complicated – and critical – than ever before to know exactly where your data is coming from and how secure it is. Do you have complete oversight and confidence in your numbers when preparing financial statements? What controls are in place to prevent fraud? What procedures are you documenting to ensure your reporting is free from material misstatement?

Remediating material weaknesses are some of the highest costs to remediate. One source indicates that companies spend an average of $7.8 million to eliminate each material weakness, including remediation efforts, increased audit fees, and other associated expenses.

Hidden costs you’ll carry with unproven AI

If you’re evaluating a custom solution or a tool from a startup, make sure to factor in:

• Integration engineering and maintenance for each ERP, bank, payment gateway, POS, and data source—plus ongoing upgrades and break/fix time and costs.
• Evidence management and audit trails that your auditors will accept (versioning, logs, e‑binders, documented approvals). Uploading a spreadsheet into a system like ChatGPT and asking it to do your reconciliations probably won’t fly when an auditor comes around.
• Security controls and certifications like SOC 1/SOC 2, and data-residency guarantees—often required by policy and procurement.
• Scaling performance and engineering to continually increase automation and handle peak volumes, without adding additional accounting staff headcount.
• If you go the DIY direction, IDC¹ predicts that by 2028, 65% of “build your own” agentic AI projects will have been abandoned after failing to meet ROI goals without factoring in actual costs and value of implementations. And by 2030, up to 20% of G1000 organizations will have faced lawsuits, substantial fines, and CIO dismissals due to high-profile disruptions stemming from inadequate controls and governance of AI agents.

The bottom line: you can save on software, or you can save on the close. Trintech is designed to help you do both – without compromising audit confidence. These are precisely the areas where Trintech invests so your teams don’t have to.

Proven ROI with Trintech

IDC¹ recommends that a better means of understanding the potential for ROI is to work with a platform vendor that has experience (at scale) delivering AI solutions, and who can provide tools, training, and assistance with an implementation, either in the public or private cloud.

Independent research based on interviews with Trintech customers quantified material, repeatable gains across the Record‑to‑Report process:

• Reconciliations: up to 99% reduction in prep time for reconcilers; 75% less time for reviewers.
• Matching & exceptions: up to 80% less time on transaction matching and 75% less on exception research.
• Journal Entry: up to 75% less time to prepare/review JEs and adjustments.
• Close orchestration: up to 30% faster close task completion.
• Audit support: 60% less time to support external audit and 40% less internal audit effort.
• Risk outcomes: up to 62% reduction in write‑offs and a 14% reduction in the risk of revenue impact due to misstatements.

Trintech’s platform unifies high‑volume matching, risk‑based certification, close task management, JE governance, intercompany, and compliance—with embedded, explainable AI and certified ERP connectivity—so teams can automate, auditors can trace, and CFOs can trust the numbers.

When evaluating ways to reduce costs and drive efficiency, the right move isn’t “generic AI for less.” If you’re looking for ways to save money, look for proven platforms that reduce audit risks and return value through measurable results.

If you’re a current Trintech customer, talk to your account manager to understand your ROI.

If you’re not a Trintech customer, learn more about our secure, auditable AI or book a demo.

¹Source: IDC Futurescape: Worldwide Agentic Artificial Intelligence 2026 Predictions, October 2025

Written by: Elizabeth Connors