Financial Leaders Aiming to Balance Growth and Cost Control
According to Gartner’s 2026 Budget Assumptions survey of 142 chief financial officers (CFOs) and senior finance leaders – taken August through September 2025 – 64% of CFOs are planning for their selling, general and administrative (SG&A) budgets to grow more slowly than their 2026 revenue growth rate (see Figure 1). Fifty-four percent anticipate SG&A growth to be one to five percentage points below revenue growth, signaling a strong intent to contain overhead costs while still aiming for revenue expansion.
“CFOs are signaling that operational efficiency, not just revenue growth, will define success in the coming year,” said Randeep Rathindran, Distinguished Vice President, Research in the Gartner Finance practice. “A focus on SG&A discipline reflects a concerted effort to right size overheads even as organizations pursue top-line expansion.”
Figure 1: Expected Growth in SG&A Budgets Relative to Assumed Revenue Growth in 2026
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Source: Gartner (October 2025)
Sources of Cost Savings: Technology and Process Redesign
- Human Resources (57%)
- Corporate IT (53%)
- Legal and Compliance (40%)
- Corporate Finance (36%)
- Marketing (27%)
This pattern reflects a growing willingness to rethink traditional support functions considering conservative hiring plans and AI-driven transformation. In fact, 42% of CFOs anticipate some level of AI-driven headcount reduction across SG&A or support functions, with 33% expecting reductions between 1-5%. These modest headcount reduction assumptions are expected given AI’s improving effectiveness at performing rule-based and judgment-based SG&A work.
Product-Mix Shifts and Headcount Discipline: Margin Growth Amid COGS Inflation
“While financial leaders are conservative on overall headcount increases in 2026, they are also factoring in the likelihood of higher costs for personnel and third-party spending, adding to the pressure of achieving operational efficiency,” said Rathindran.
